Jewher Ilham is a remarkable young woman. She is a Uyghur activist, although she did not set out to be, of course. Life threw at her some terrible challenges, and she has met them. I sat down with her at the Oslo Freedom Forum earlier this week. For our Q&A podcast, go here.
Jewher was born and raised in Beijing. She speaks Chinese with a Beijing accent. Her parents were Uyghur, however. Her father is Ilham Tohti, an economist and professor. In 2013, he was invited by Indiana University to spend a year in Bloomington, on a fellowship. Jewher had just started her own university, in Beijing. She had had one semester. Now it was winter break. Her father wanted her to come with him to Indiana, for two weeks. She balked, however. She wanted to spend the break with her new university friends. But he kept asking, and she agreed.
Their flight was at 11 a.m. on February 2, 2013. They left for the airport at 3 a.m. — not because they wanted to be early. They had a better chance of not being followed by the police, at that hour. Professor Tohti was not only a professor of economics, he was also a spokesman for Uyghur rights.
They were not followed. Everything was smooth sailing. They checked their bags and got their boarding passes. Before they were able to board, however, agents approached Professor Tohti and took him to a small interrogation room. Jewher followed them. They were not going to let the professor board. He wanted Jewher to go on without him. She thought that was crazy. She had not wanted to go in the first place. And she certainly wasn’t going to go without him.
He signaled to her, however, that it was important. He wanted her to go. He insisted that she go. He embraced her, and took her by the shoulders, and sort of shoved her forward, gently. He asked that she not cry — that she not cry in front of others. They should not think that Uyghur girls were weak.
She boarded the plane, with great reluctance. For the 14 hours of the flight, she cried. She stared at the empty seat next to her. She was bewildered. She ate nothing, but did drink some water.
They landed in Chicago. This confused her. All she knew was the name “Indiana.” She spoke barely any English. Officials did not know what to do with her. They were going to send her back. But they asked whether she wanted to make a phone call. She took out her phone — a Nokia 8610. It didn’t work in the United States. Besides, the only numbers she had were those of her family and friends, back in Beijing. What could they do?
She noticed something. Next to her phone was a little piece of paper, wadded up. It had a name on it: “Elliott Sperling.” Jewher’s father must have put this paper into her pocket, when he was embracing her and sending her along. This was his contact at Indiana University: Elliott Sperling, the chairman of the Department of Eurasian Studies.
In due course, he became Jewher’s mentor.
Her father, Ilham Tohti, was “disappeared” into the gulag. His daughter — now 27 — is doing everything she can to help him, and other Uyghurs. The U.S. State Department has classified China’s persecution of the Uyghurs as a genocide. In 2019, the European Parliament awarded its Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought to Professor Tohti (in absentia, of course). Jewher is a spokesman for the Coalition to End Forced Labour in the Uyghur Region. She is a delightful young woman, and courageous. You will like getting to know her. Again, our podcast is here.