Read RFA coverage of this story in Uyghur.
A Uyghur woman has been sentenced to 17 years in a Xinjiang prison for giving religious lessons to her two sons and a neighbor, officials in the region told Radio Free Asia.
Seylihan Rozi, 49, was sentenced for providing “illegal underground religious activity” by teaching others the 10 Quranic verses that Muslims recite when they perform namaz, the practice of praying five times a day, said a policeman in Saybagh village who oversaw her case. He did not provide further information about her imprisonment.
A Bulaqsu Township Party Committee staffer in Kashgar prefecture’s Konasheher county told RFA that Rozi was originally a resident of Saybagh village and that she had been sentenced to prison for her “illegal religious activities.”
In recent years, Chinese authorities have penalized many Uyghurs in Xinjiang for religious activities, such as teaching the Quran to children, based on leaked Chinese government documents, data gathered by Uyghur rights organizations and testimonies from former detainees who were in “re-education” camps.
The government has criminalized normal religious practices of Uyghurs, such as reading the Quran, praying, growing a beard and going to mosques, under the pretext of fighting against alleged separatism, terrorism and extremism in the region.
Sons sentenced
Rozi’s sons were sentenced to seven and 10 years, respectively, in prison for receiving “illegal religious education” from their mother, the police officer in Saybagh village said.
Another staffer at the same police station in Saybagh village who also dealt with Rozi’s case said she received 17 years for teaching “illegal religious education” to her neighbor, Yakup Hidayet, and engaging in “illegal underground religious activities.”
Hidayet received a 9-year sentence, he said.
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A review of detained Uyghurs in the Xinjiang Police Files — confidential documents hacked from Xinjiang police computers that contain the personal records of 830,000 individuals, and were first published by the Washington-based Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation in 2022 — confirm the sentences given to Rozi’s sons, Sattar Kadir and Yusuf Ahmed Kadir.
Although Rozi’s arrest was mentioned in the files, no information was given about her sentencing.
The documents said Sattar and Yusuf Ahmed received “illegal religious education” between 2004 and 2008 from Rozi, who also taught her neighbor, Yakup Hidayet, for three days in June 2006.
Since 2017, the Chinese government has rounded up an estimated 1.8 million Uyghurs in internment camps, accusing many of practicing their Muslim faith or sending their children to study Islam in countries like Egypt and Turkey. China has said the facilities were vocational training centers that have since been closed.
Other Uyghurs who were arrested for teaching their children the Quran or sending them to study the basic principles of Islam have also been charged with providing “illegal religious education” and sentenced to prison terms of 10 to 20 years. Their children were given sentences of less than 10 years.
Translated by RFA Uyghur. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.