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NY Times, August 8 2014
Uighurs’ Veils Signal Protest Against China’s Restrictions
By DAN LEVIN
URUMQI, China — Fond of denim and lace, fluent in multiple languages and
proud of her success as an international business translator, Luna
appears to be a model of the assimilated Uighur that the Chinese
government is striving for. She grew up in the far-western region of
Xinjiang, where marrying and mothering was the paramount role for women
of her largely Muslim, Turkic-speaking minority ethnic group, and
eventually moved to distant Beijing, where she feels more comfortable
among the country’s Han majority than in the conservative world of her
youth.
But Luna, who like others interviewed for this article asked to be
identified by a nickname to avoid retaliation by the police, is
increasingly torn between her professional ambition and her outrage
toward official restrictions targeting the Uighur way of life. “The more
the Chinese government forces us to live a Han lifestyle, the more we
will find ways to express our Uighur identity,” she said.
As the Chinese authorities in Xinjiang intensify an increasingly deadly
campaign framed as a battle against Islamic separatists, they have cast
their net over a wide range of Uighur practices, including the wearing
of veils and long beards, which are seen as dangerous signs of religious
extremism. Some Uighurs have responded with alarm, redoubling efforts to
safeguard centuries-old traditions they fear could disappear. Critics
argue that the government’s increasingly assertive policies have
inadvertently bolstered the appeal of conservative Islam, with its
emphasis on morality and traditional roles for women.
Stuck in the middle of this intensifying culture war are Uighur women
who want to embrace modernity without forsaking their heritage.
“Uighur women are really the first victims of mounting tensions and
repression in Xinjiang,” said Nicholas Bequelin, a senior researcher at
Human Rights Watch in Hong Kong. “They are under pressure from the state
to adopt new standards, and pressured by their communities to cut ties
with a society seen as unclean.”
At a popular night market here in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang
region, women in black burqas hawk fake designer undergarments next to
stalls doing a brisk business in bluejeans and silk head scarves
decorated with the Louis Vuitton logo. One scarf vendor, her face framed
by a yellow hijab, explained the concealment of her hair as an act of
piety. “Allah tells us women to be modest, so we cover up,” she said.
But the state is making life increasingly difficult for faithful
Uighurs. Along with deploying security forces armed with heavy weaponry,
officials have instituted a wave of prohibitions meant to forcibly
assimilate Uighurs into the Chinese nation.
During the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which ended late last month,
students and government workers were prohibited from fasting. A drive to
repress female head coverings in some areas, marked by street
checkpoints, Uighurs say, and barring such coverings at hospitals,
schools and banks, gained sharper teeth on Wednesday when Karamay, a
city in northern Xinjiang, banned men with long beards and women in
veils from riding public buses. The stricter rules add to longstanding
grievances among the country’s 10 million Uighurs, who resent policies
they say favor Mandarin over the Uighur language in schools and have
made them a minority in their traditional homeland.
Eager to win over Uighur women, the government in 2011 introduced
Project Beauty, a campaign to discourage women from wearing veils and
head scarves that urges them to “show your pretty faces and let your
beautiful hair fly in the wind.” Officials say the campaign promotes
female empowerment while nurturing a local fashion and cosmetics
industry said to be worth $480 million. To drive home the message of
gender equality, the campaign uses films, fashion shows and the
state-controlled media, some of which claim that veils cause depression
and scare children.
Wang Jianling, party secretary of the government-run Xinjiang Women’s
Association, denied the existence of checkpoints and insisted that it
was “extremely rare” for Uighur women to wear veils. Still, she praised
Project Beauty as vital for encouraging Uighur women to embrace
modernity. “It would be impossible to empower women and realize their
full potential if you don’t say goodbye to outdated practices designed
to hold women down,” she said in a phone interview.
Despite the cheerful propaganda, veils have become a point of contention
for violent clashes. In May, protesters in southern Xinjiang beat up a
school principal they had accused of helping the authorities round up
female students wearing head scarves. Police officers opened fire on the
angry crowd, killing at least four people, Uighur activists say. In
June, four Uighur men were shot and killed during a confrontation with
officials who had lifted a woman’s veil during a house inspection.
The battle over the female dress code is part of a larger struggle over
what it means to be Uighur in Xinjiang, a place long known for its
moderate brand of Sunni Islam. Though some Uighur women cover their hair
and faces for religious reasons, a growing number appear to be embracing
the practice as a gesture of quiet defiance. “Whenever I go home to
Xinjiang, I wear a head scarf to show that I cherish my culture,” said
Luna, the business translator.
As the self-appointed protector of Uighur culture, the government is
fond of using the state-controlled mass media as a tool for guiding
sartorial public opinion. On television, Uighur women are invariably
typecast as loyal, exotic props in a state-scripted patriotic epic that
stars the ruling Han majority. Their costumes — traditional ethnic
dresses, embroidered caps and long braids — reinforce the official
message that veils and head scarves have no place in Uighur daily life.
Just as there are women in other countries who see the veil as a symbol
of female repression, some Uighur women reject the conservative
religious traditions of their ethnic group. “In traditional Uighur
culture, women are below men,” said Zoe, a proudly assimilated Uighur
magazine editor, who never covers her hair and has a Han boyfriend,
despite her parents’ objections. “Many young women like me don’t want to
follow the same rules as their mothers did.”
Beijing has spent heavily wooing women in Xinjiang. From 2000 to 2010,
according to government figures, well over three million ethnic minority
women enrolled in classes that taught tailoring, cooking and computer
skills. In Kashgar, the ancient Silk Road oasis that is predominantly
Uighur, officials have distributed about $640 million in microloans to
women since 2011, said Ms. Wang, the women’s association party secretary.
In some ways, Beijing’s heavy-handed governance has overshadowed its
measurable success in bolstering opportunities for Uighur women.
“Before, when families wanted to find a bride for their son, they looked
for a girl who could cook,” said Rahile Dawut, director of the Xinjiang
Folklore Research Center at Xinjiang University in Urumqi. “Now, they
want an educated girl with a job.”
Ms. Dawut is particularly inspired by her female master’s students, an
intrepid band of academic achievers who travel across Xinjiang to record
oral histories. But these days, Ms. Dawut’s pride is tinged with alarm
as more Uighur women turn to conservative Islam.
The shift is visible on the streets of Urumqi, long a bastion of secular
cosmopolitanism, where head scarves and veils now mingle with pants,
skirts and high heels.
“Some of my friends come back to Urumqi and say, ‘This is not the place
where we grew up,’ ” she said. “Every day we feel like things are
changing around us.”
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