Kalbinur Sidik is a Uyghur activist who was forced to flee Xinjiang after experiencing China’s full-fledged persecution of her people in the region.
Born in Urumqi, Sidik became a Mandarin teacher at a local primary school in 1999. After decades as an educator, she was coerced into teaching at two “reeducation camps” in 2016. There she witnessed rampant abuse, torture, and sexual violence of fellow Uyghurs, though she was barred from sharing what she saw under the threat that her and her family would be sent to camps themselves.
At home, Sidik, like other members of the Uyghur community, endured persecution and harassment at the hands of the Chinese government. Amidst mounting night raids, she saw her neighbours being taken to the camps she knew all too well about. During that same period, she was forcibly sterilized three times, each of which brought intense medical complications that left her bedridden, and at times, hospitalized.
After receiving tubal ligation surgery in 2019, Sidik was finally granted permission by Chinese authorities to travel to The Netherlands to receive medical treatment. However, she would never return.
Despite ongoing threats and harassment by Chinese authorities, Sidik continues to speak out on the atrocities being committed at the camps and the broader persecution of Uyghurs in China.
