'Eating suhoor in the dark': Ramadan for Uighurs, a month of struggle

As Muslims across the world navigate grief caused by Israel’s onslaught on Gaza, which has also hindered the joy of Ramadan, another Muslim community–the Uighur Turks of China– have been facing systemic oppression and violence for years and their voices are barely heard.

Cut off from the outside world, it's yet another Ramadan for Muslims in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, trapped in what has been described as “a dystopian hellscape on a staggering scale” with an “Orwellian high-tech surveillance.”

The restrictions in the region, denounced as "crimes against humanity" by numerous human rights organisations, are intensified annually during Ramadan, compounded by the government's regional state of emergency measures.

During this month, it becomes difficult to bring joy and tranquillity not only to around 10 million Uighurs and several other predominantly Muslim groups living in Xinjiang, China's largest region, covering one-sixth of its total territory and with a population of 25 million but also to the Uighur diaspora around the world, who remain cut off from their families for years.

'Sinicisation' of Islam

“Everyone knows that Islam in Xinjiang needs to be Sinicised, this is an inevitable trend,” Communist Party Secretary of Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, Ma Xingrui, told reporters on March 7, just days before this year’s Ramadan commenced.

China often portrays “sinicisation” as a movement to encourage religious groups to align their doctrines and customs with Chinese culture, the practice has been enforced by the Communist state across religions including Islam, Buddhism, and Christianity, urging followers to prioritise loyalty to the Communist Party above everything. Chinese leader Xi Jinping first introduced this concept during a 2015 assembly of the Communist Party.

The situation worsened primarily after May 2014, when the government launched a "Strike Hard" campaign to address perceived terrorist threats, which it linked to religious "extremism" and separatism in Xinjiang. Other notable restrictions, such as confiscating passports of Uighurs and other Muslim minorities, as well as the initiation of the Fanghuiju program—a three-year campaign deploying hundreds of thousands of cadres to regularly visit Muslim homes and implement so-called community-level development initiatives—also began in the same year.

In January 2024, it was China’s turn for the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) overseen by the UN’s Human Rights Council. This was the first discussion on China's human rights within the UN since the body’s 2022 report, and China had reportedly lobbied non-Western countries beforehand to fill the time with praise and Communist party talking points.

While many of these countries praised China for its efforts in alleviating poverty, at least 50 states made recommendations, such as ending arbitrary detention and enforced disappearances.

Ramadans in Xinjiang

Until 2014, fasting was not prohibited for those who were not civil servants. Only children and civil servants were forbidden to fast, says Abduresid Eminhaci, Secretary-General of the International Union of the East Turkistan Organizations.

“During Ramadan, village leaders would often patrol the streets in the evening and check whether the lights in people's windows were on or off before dawn, during suhoor time. My aunt and uncle were both teachers and prohibited from fasting. I remember them quietly eating their suhoor meals in the dark, without turning on the lights. They were secretly fasting,” he tells TRT World.

Recalling his Ramadan memories from his homeland, what is preferred to be called as “East Turkistan” by many Uighurs, Eminhaci says that similar to civil servants, minors were also forbidden from attending mosques and participating in religious worship, and during tarawih prayers in Ramadan, police officers would monitor mosques to ensure that those under 18 and civil servants did not enter.

“As children, we would sneak into the mosque covertly,” he says.

In 2014, a new practice of distributing food to students in schools during Ramadan was introduced, according to him.

“Typically, our schools didn't provide meals, and there were no cafeterias. However, during Ramadan, food started to be distributed to discourage students from fasting. I was in middle school at that time. I recall a teacher distributing watermelons at school and checking if the students were eating them. Any student not eating would receive a warning.”

These were his memories from before 2016, and things worsened after 2017 for the region's Muslims when a regulation was passed to broaden the definition of "extremism" under the law.

"In 2017, we began to hear reports of arrests targeting those who closed their restaurants during Ramadan, instances of individuals being abruptly stopped on the streets and coerced into eating, and penalties imposed on people –not just civil servants– if their lights were on during suhoor time," Eminhaci says.

The 30-year-old Uighur man, born and raised in Xinjiang, left for Türkiye in 2016 and has been unable to communicate with his family or relatives in the region for the last 7 years as his family ceased communication from Ramadan of 2017 onwards due to perceived risks.

"We typically used WeChat, a Chinese version of WhatsApp. All my relatives, including my mother, disconnected from me on that app. They expressed concern, saying, 'Let's refrain from communication; it could be dangerous for us.' I didn't insist. And a year after this cutoff, all WeChat accounts belonging to Uighurs abroad were closed, rendering them inaccessible. I lost touch with them completely."

Abduresit, a father of a daughter now, has four siblings and parents residing in Xinjiang, and all he knows is that his father was arrested a few Ramadans ago.

Expressions of extremification

As per the comprehensive report issued by The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in August 2022, contact with individuals overseas is cited as one of the factors leading to referral to the "Vocational Education and Training Centers" (VETC), established by the Chinese government as facilities for "deradicalization" and "re-education".

While the government has explained that this system aims to balance severe punishment for serious offences “with compassion, leniency, education, and rehabilitation for minor cases,” the significant distinction between what constitutes serious and minor acts of terrorism or extremist acts is unclear, according to the OHCHR.

Moreover, the undefined criteria and broadly worded requirements create "significant scope for arbitrary, inconsistent, and subjective application of the law."

As the UN notes credible allegations of torture, ill-treatment including forced medical treatment, adverse detention conditions, and individual incidents of sexual violence concerning persons held in VETC facilities, these "transformation-through-education centres" are reportedly arbitrarily detaining up to 1 million individuals, along with at least hundreds of thousands who have been sent to prisons, according to Amnesty International.

Some of the acts that lead Uighurs to prisons or these centres are categorised as an open-ended list of "primary expressions of extremification" by the UN.

Reported examples include: rejecting or refusing radio and television; being young and middle-aged men with a big beard; suddenly quitting drinking and smoking, and not interacting with others who do; resisting normal cultural and sports activities such as football and singing competitions; using mobile phone text messages and social chat software to exchange learning experience; carrying illegal political and religious books and audio-visual products or checking them at the residence; using satellite receivers, Internet, radio, and other equipment to illegally listen to, watch, and spread overseas religious radio and television programs.

Family away from home

Amidst the UN's cautionary remarks on the intimidation and threats faced by members of the diaspora community speaking out about their Xinjiang experiences, Uighurs worldwide persist in maintaining their community cohesion this Ramadan, despite yearning for their loved ones.

In 2019, Samarjan Sayyidi, a 35-year-old Uighur based in Türkiye, shifted from a career in civil engineering to establishing a community centre for Uighur youth in Istanbul's Sefakoy district, home to a large Uighur diaspora population.

The youth centre provides English courses, maths classes, art classes, Uighur traditional music workshops, fashion design workshops, and more. However, as Sayyidi emphasises, the primary focus is to meet the needs of Uighur youth, whatever they may be. And sometimes, meeting those needs means gathering around an iftar table and breaking fast with their traditional food.

“Many youths in the diaspora are often separated from their siblings and families. In our situation, it is imperative to establish a platform for youth to meet, become acquainted with one another, foster trust and connections, and build a familial atmosphere. The primary goal of organising such iftar gatherings is to provide a homelike environment for the youth,” he tells TRT World.

They have little hope of reuniting with their families, as those in Xinjiang are confined due to strict restrictions on movement. Ethnic community members are systematically checked at roadblocks and checkpoints, including airports, with passports of Uighurs and other predominantly Muslim minorities being confiscated.

Additionally, their families may be participating in iftar dinners, possibly with outsiders present, as some cadres might be with them.

In 2016, Chinese authorities launched the "Becoming Family" campaign, pairing cadres and civil workers from various ethnic groups through regular visits. This "home stay" initiative continued in early 2018, with cadres spending at least five days every two months in families' homes. According to the government, since 2016, approximately 1.1 million officials have been paired with 1.6 million local people, fostering relationships “akin to family” members through close interactions.

However, individuals with firsthand experience noted restrictions such as being prohibited from praying or speaking their own language when "relatives" visited.