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Sunday, 24 May 2020

'I miss my homeland': fearful Uighurs celebrate Eid in exile in Turkey

Istanbul has become world’s largest diaspora hub for Uighurs fleeing Chinese persecution

In Hayrı Gül’s house, there was a lot to do before the Eid al-Fitr, or Bayram, holiday marking the end of Ramadan began on Saturday. There were traditional sangza noodles to bake, then twist into ropes and pile into pyramids. Special occasion clothes needed to be washed and ironed.

Celebrating the Muslim holiday is a freedom Gül and her four children did not have at home in China’s western Xinjiang province, the Uighur homeland, where over the last few years the authorities have suffocated the ethnic minority’s cultural practices and turned the entire region into a police state subject to strict surveillance even inside their homes. Up to 1 million people have disappeared into re-education camps in what China says is a necessary measure to stamp out extremism.

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from Islam | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3cUyfTM

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