Read RFA coverage of this story in Uyghur.
Chinese authorities in Xinjiang are forcing Uyghurs to work during Ramadan to prevent them from fasting and praying as the Islamic holy month requires, sources in China’s northwestern region said.
Videos circulating on social media platforms last week showed Uyghurs performing forced labor en masse during Ramadan. Some toiled in fields, while others performed cleaning work.
The move is one of several measures by authorities to ban religious practices among the roughly 12 million mostly Muslim Uyghurs who live in Xinjiang amid China’s wider, systematic persecution of Uyghurs and their culture.
Muslims are urged to fast between dawn and dusk during Ramadan, which this year runs from Feb. 28 to March 29.
In most countries, Muslims can do this freely. But in China, authorities have banned fasting during the holy month under the guise of stamping out religious extremism — even requiring people to send officials video proof that they are eating lunch during the day.
They also have forbidden Uyghurs from gathering at mosques to pray on Fridays and from observing other Muslim holidays.
A video posted on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, showed residents of Hotan toiling in agricultural fields on the second day of Ramadan.
Other information from a video posted on the seventh day of Ramadan indicated that residents of all Uyghur households had to perform collective cleaning.
None of the videos gave details, such as where the residents performed the work, and no one offered an explanation as to why it had become necessary to work during Ramadan.
“For 15 days, the residents have been working under the leadership of village and county governments to clean house yards and renovate public restrooms,” said a staffer who works for the Onsu county government in Aksu prefecture.
Labor is good for you
A policeman at a county police station told RFA that some residents were unhappy about being forced to work during Ramadan, but tried to defend the measure, saying that the labor was beneficial to them.
“They hope that local authorities reduce their forced labor time and allow them to do their housework,” he said.
A staff member of a neighborhood committee in Onsu county said Uyghurs have been working unpaid since the beginning of Ramadan, and they must perform cleaning as required or be punished for resisting.
“We divided households into two groups, and each group had 10 people, and they all had to perform the expected tasks,” the staffer said. “We have not taken any measures against anyone opposing the government’s order.”
Those who refused to do the work would be detained in a local cadre’s office for 7-10 days or taken “to the camps” if their resistance was strong, the staffer said, referring to the re-education camps Beijing built across Xinjiang.
Uyghurs living in the Gulbagh neighborhood of Aksu’s Shayar county cleaned and organized their gardens and yards, the police officer said.
Chinese authorities in Aksu prefecture are forcing Uyghur residents to work during Ramadan so they can’t fast, said a person with knowledge of the situation who requested anonymity for safety reasons.
Authorities also have required Uyghur villagers in the prefecture to attend political study sessions on the central Chinese government’s policies in Xinjiang nonstop since the beginning of Ramadan, this person said.
Village cadres are intentionally holding the sessions during sahur, the pre-dawn meal, or iftar, the meal after sunset during the holy month. such as studying central government’s Xinjiang policies, the source said.
A policeman from Uchturpan county in Aksu prefecture said the purpose of forced labor during Ramadan was to observe the Uyghurs.
“Our purpose in doing this is to explain to them the policies of our [Chinese] Communist Party, educate them, and observe their thoughts and feelings,” he said.
If a Uyghurs tire easily, feel weak or do not eat or drink while working, it proves that they have been fasting and have an ideological problem, he said.
“Around 10 people were reluctant to comply with these rules, so we intensified our ideological work on them,” he said.
Translated by RFA Uyghur. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.