The latest in FMO’s growing selection of podcasts focuses on a new Chinese government policy, recruiting young Uyghur women from majority Uyghur areas of East Turkestan, and transferring them to work in factories in urban areas of eastern China.
Under this policy, thousands of Uyghur women have been removed from their families and placed into substandard working conditions thousands of miles from their homes. Though official propaganda slogans promote the program as an overwhelmingly positive experience for these women, less than two years after the initiation of the policy, it has already left a history of broken promises and shattered families. Local leaders, who are subject to intense pressure from higher levels of the PRC government, have used deception, pressure, and threats in order to recruit women to participate in the program.
In this podcast, four experts talk about the impact this programme is having on these women:
- Dr. Michael Dillon, visiting professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing
- Omer Kanat, Uyghur Service at Radio Free Asia
- Amy Reger, Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP)
- Enver Tohti, chairman of the UK Uighur Association
These interviews were recorded between September 2008 and July 2009, by film-maker Simon James.