Asiye Uyghur

July 5: The Urumqi Massacre’s Unanswered Questions

by Asiye Uyghur | Jul 3, 2026 | Op-eds China

Seventeen years after the tragedy, the questions still matter. A Uyghur view. by Asiye Uyghur Images of the 2009 repression. From X. Seventeen years have passed since the July 5, 2009, Urumqi massacre. Yet the questions raised on that day have never disappeared. They...

Uyghurs Students as Dissidents: 40 Years of History

by Asiye Uyghur | Jun 19, 2026 | Featured China

How Uyghur students helped shape China’s 1980s reform era, and a democratic awakening became recast as a security threat.

When Uyghur Culture Becomes “Extremism”: From Doppa to Hijab

by Asiye Uyghur | May 21, 2026 | Testimonies China

A clear trend appears in Beijing’s policies: any cultural aspect that visibly expresses Uyghur identity is gradually targeted and suppressed.

Asiye Uyghur

Asiye Uyghur is a Netherlands-based Uyghur writer and political commentator. Before the closure of Radio Free Asia’s Uyghur Service, she worked there as a political commentator. She currently publishes commentary and analysis in English, Dutch, and Chinese on Uyghur human rights, cultural repression, information control, and Chinese state policies related to Uyghurs through platforms including Global Voices, the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) as a guest contributor, and the Dutch publication “De Kanttekening.”