Muyesser Abdul'ehed is a Uyghur poet and teacher, who has spoken out against civilian internment of Uyghur people by Chinese authorities. She teaches Uyghur language to children of the Uyghur diaspora.

Early life and education

Muyesser was born in

Ghulja YiningThe official spelling according to (), also known as Ghulja ( ug, غۇلجا) or Qulja ( kk, قۇلجا) and formerly Ningyuan (), is a county-level city in Northwestern Xinjiang, People's Republic of China and the seat of the Ili Kazakh A ...

, a city in the north of Uyghur Autonomous region of

Xinjiang Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...

in today's People's Republic China in the mid-1980s. She studied Medicine at Peking University, followed by an MA in Public Health, from a Malaysian university. During her undergraduate degree she began to write poetry and following her postgraduate degree decided to pursue a career in creative writing.

Career

In 2013, Muyesser moved to Turkey and established the organisatio
Ayhan Education
whose purpose is to foster the

Uyghur language The Uyghur or Uighur language (; , , , or , , , , CTA: Uyğurçä; formerly known as Eastern Turki), is a Turkic language written in a Uyghur Perso-Arabic script with 8-11 million speakers, spoken primarily by the Uyghur people in the Xi ...

in diaspora communities. Their work includes publishing a Uyghur language magazine written by children, aimed at their peers. The magazine is called ''Four Leaf Clover.'' Prior to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, Hendan taught in-person language lessons, but since then has moved to digital tuition and reached more students as a result. Muyesser's writing focuses on the experience of Uyghur people forced to live in internment camps. Her novel ''Kheyr-khosh, quyash'' (''Farewell to the Sun'') is the first novel to describe Uyghur internment camps. Some of her work focuses on women's experiences, including a poem from the perspective of a wife whose husband is interned.

Personal life

As of 2020, Hendan lived in

Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_i ...

. She has spoken out about how her father expected the family to be imprisoned due to

civil unrest Civil disorder, also known as civil disturbance, civil unrest, or social unrest is a situation arising from a mass act of civil disobedience (such as a demonstration, riot, strike, or unlawful assembly) in which law enforcement has difficulty ...

. She lost contact with her family in 2017 and she has spoken about her feelings of

survivor guilt Survivor guilt (or survivor's guilt; also called survivor syndrome or survivor's syndrome and survivor disorder or survivor's disorder) is a mental condition that occurs when a person believes they have done something wrong by surviving a traumati ...

. Her family were forced to cease contact with her due to pressure from the authoritarian state in China, where even being in contact with a relative abroad is a reason for arrest. She believes her cousin, Erpat Ablekrem - a professional football player, was interned as a result of contact with her.

Awards

She was on the list of the BBC's 100 Women announced on 23 November 2020.

Selected publications

* ''Kheyr-khosh, quyash'' (2020) *''Missing you is painful'' (2012)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abdul'ehed, Muyesser Uyghur activists Uyghur poets Uyghur women poets Uyghur diaspora Year of birth uncertain Writers from Istanbul Peking University alumni BBC 100 Women Year of birth missing (living people) Living people