Rebiya Kadeer

A leading advocate for human rights among minorities in China will give a free lecture Tuesday, Oct. 21, at Davidson College. Rebiya Kadeer, a Uyghur from northwest China, will speak on “China’s Other Tibet: The Plight of China’s Uyghur People” at 7 p.m. in Alvarez College Union 900 Room.

Ms. Kadeer was imprisoned in 2000 for speaking out against Chinese repression of Uyghurs. Now a U.S. resident, she was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 and won the Rafto Prize for Human Rights in 2004.

Her visit is sponsored by Davidson’s Dean Rusk International Studies Program and the East Asian Studies Program. It is the third in a series of four lectures on Chinese issues this fall at the college.

Uyghurs are a Turkic-speaking, predominantly Muslim population in Xinjiang, in northwest China. Born into poverty, Ms. Kadeer became a successful entrepreneur and philanthropist. Once counted among the wealthiest people in the People’s Republic of China, Ms. Kadeer broke with the Chinese government in 1998 and began calling for a change in its repressive policies against the Uyghurs.

In 1999, Ms. Kadeer was sentenced to an eight-year prison term. China released her in 2004 under pressure from the United States. She now dedicates her time to speaking on human rights in China.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE

Aug. 29, 2008, “China lecture series opens with talk on 1-child policy”