Kalbinur Tursun is an ethnic Uyghur mother who fled oppressive policies in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) for Turkey in April 2016 while seven months pregnant and with one of her six other children in tow. She planned to return to the XUAR after giving birth to bring her remaining children to Turkey with her, but was unable to do so after her husband was arrested back home for “attempting to travel abroad” and “suspected terrorism.”
Since then, dozens of members of her extended family have been detained and she is unsure of what became of her children. Her family members are believed to be among the estimated 1.1 million Uyghurs held in “political re-education camps” throughout the XUAR.
