Uyghur poet imprisoned on separatism charges in China’s Xinjiang

A Uyghur poet who wrote a series of poems that movingly described the lives of Uyghurs under Chinese rule is serving more than 17 years in prison on separatism charges, RFA has confirmed. Gulnisa Emin from Chira (in Chinese, Cele) county in Hotan (Hetian) prefecture in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region is known for a series of poems titled “One Thousand and One Nights,” which she began writing and releasing online as audiocasts under the pseudonym Gulhan in 2015.

On the 345th night she issued a poem, Gulnisa Emin was suddenly cut off from the internet. Rumors circulated in the Uyghur community that she had been sentenced to a lengthy prison sentence, according to Abduweli Ayup, a Norway-based activist and linguist who documents missing and imprisoned Uyghurs in Xinjiang.

“In May 2019 during a protest I saw the picture of the poet who used the pseudonym of Gulhan, and couldn’t believe my eyes,” Abduweli said during one of his programs on RFA’s Uyghur Service “I talked to the protester holding her picture and found out the truth that our beloved poet, Gulnisa Emin, had been detained in December 2018.”

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