Uyghur Survivor of China’s Concentration Camps
Gulbahar Haitiwaji worked as an engineer in the Uyghur Region before leaving with her two daughters to join her husband, who had sought asylum, in France. In 2016, she was tricked into returning to China, and vanished into the camps. Haitiwaji’s daughter, Gulhumar, a French citizen, campaigned tirelessly for her mother’s release. In 2019, after enduring two years in the camps, and half a year under house arrest, Haitiwaji was allowed to return to France. Her book, “How I Survived a Chinese ‘Reeducation’ Camp,” was published in French, English, and 12 other languages. It’s the first published account describing life inside the camps and the brutalities Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples have suffered. Haitiwaji testified before the Uyghur Tribunal in London in 2021 and Congress in March 2023.