CFU PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 10th, 2026
Contact: contact@campaignforuyghurs.org
https://campaignforuyghurs.org/

We Must Remember Uyghur Women This Mother’s Day 

On this Mother’s Day, Campaign for Uyghurs (CFU) extends warm wishes to all mothers worldwide. Today, we are also reminded of the plight of Uyghur women and mothers living under Chinese oppression in East Turkistan (aka the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region).

Uyghur women are subjected to severe and systematic repression that strips away their bodily autonomy by the Chinese government, including forced sterilizations and coerced abortions, contributing to drastic declines in birth rates in some regions. According to a report by Dr. Adrian Zenz, Uyghur women have been forcibly fitted with IUDs against their will and threatened with detention for refusing sterilization procedures. Uyghur women have also been subjected to state-sponsored “marriages” with Han Chinese men under coercive government policies. Under China’s so-called “ethnic unity law,” members of other ethnic groups are effectively prevented from objecting to such arrangements. In addition, Uyghur women have faced harsh punishment for practicing and teaching their religion and culture, with documented cases resulting in prison sentences of 10 to 14 years. Prominent Uyghur mothers, including Dr. Gulshan Abbas and Professor Rahila Dawut, remain unjustly imprisoned and continue to endure unimaginable conditions.

This Mother’s Day, we also remember the millions of families torn apart by Beijing’s genocidal policies. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has taken an estimated million children separated from their parents and placed in state-run orphanages, where they are forcibly assimilated, stripped of their language and culture, and subjected to CCP indoctrination. Under the above-mentioned “ethnic unity law,” parents are to “educate and guide children to love the CCP,” enshrining cultural genocide into law.

“For Uyghur women living under China’s oppressive rule and subjected to the CCP’s genocidal policies, Mother’s Day is a painful reminder of families torn apart, and of the children many are denied the right to have and raise,” said CFU’s Executive Director Rushan Abbas. “ My sister Gulshan and every other Uyghur woman and mother should be free, spending their days surrounded by their children and families. On this Mother’s Day, the international community must stand with Uyghur women. The silence of women’s rights advocates is deafening. Between a compromised U.N., quiet world leaders, and a Hollywood funded by Chinese interests, the betrayal is complete. They may have traded integrity for influence, but our spirit is strong. The truth cannot be bought, and it will prevail.”

CFU calls on the international community to recognize the suffering of the Uyghurs under the CCP’s brutal violations of human rights on this Mother’s Day and to take tangible actions to end this genocide.