BITTER WINTER

Abdulhakim Idris

Abdulhakim Idris

Abdulhakim Idris was born in Hotan city in East Turkestan (Ch. Xinjiang). He was educated in Islamic religious studies and Arabic language in underground Islamic schools in Hotan before he left his hometown in 1986 to study Islam in Egypt at Al-Azhar University. He settled in Munich, Germany in 1991 as one of the first Uyghurs to seek asylum in Europe. Mr. Idris moved to the United States in 2009. He is is the founder and Executive Director of the Center for Uyghur Studies, a Washington D.C.-based think tank. In 2017, Mr. Idris and his wife Rushan Abbas founded the non-profit organization Campaign for Uyghurs. He currently lives in Northern Virginia with his family.