The media loves Uighur women.<\/p>\n
They give them lots of margins, and inches on front pages. They plaster their photos and quote them favorably. In prominent photo spreads<\/a>, they marvel at their exotic traditional attire. They sympathize with their struggle against the brutal, ruthless Communist China.<\/p>\n Looking at the photos and pairing them with the numerous mainstream accounts of the Uighurs\u2019 struggle suggests (to even the casual follower of news) that Islam is not about the ideology of Al Qaeda and suicide bombers, but simply the religion of people around the world. The Uighurs are symbolic of the diversity represented in the world\u2019s Muslim communities and the complexity of national and Islamic identity.\u00a0 Their struggle for autonomy\u2014though long and ardugous\u2014is nothing like the rocks, rockets, and suicide vests attributed to the Palestinians, but with sympathy western media recently showed the Iranians: it\u2019s a struggle about the young and modern fighting the modern tyrant. And Muslim women are center stage.<\/p>\n \u201cMuslim women lead protests in restive west China\u201d yells the Associated Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe petite Muslim woman with the sky blue head scarf began by complaining that the public washrooms were closed at a crowded mosque on Friday \u2014 the most important day of the week for Islamic worship.\u201d<\/p>\n Aw, the Muslimah is all petite and innocent, her headscarf blue like the sky, soft like the heavens. And here she is, a Muslim woman complaining about a mosque being closed because she can\u2019t perform her Islamic duty. Any account of a Muslim woman must always be accompanied by a description of what she\u2019s wearing, of course!<\/p>\n \u201cThe 26-year-old businesswoman eventually led the crowd of mostly men in a fist-pumping street march that was quickly blocked by riot police, some with automatic rifles pointed at the protesters.\u201d<\/p>\n A Muslim woman who is a businesswoman\u2013you don\u2019t say! This can\u2019t possibly happen anywhere else! And here she is, leading a crowd of men? And there\u2019s \u201cfist-pumping?!\u201d<\/p>\n Why, oh roving reporters, do you reserve your admiration for the Uighurs? Why isn\u2019t the Islam of women in El Sham or Pakistan represented with the same poetic equality and dignity?<\/p>\n Is it because they pose absolutely no threat to America\u2019s foreign interests, and are not Arab or brown? Or could it be that they are actually \u201cliberated\u201d? Rebiya Kader, a leading Uighur rights activist, claims that China has painted the Uighurs<\/a> as \u201cextremely pro-west Muslims \u2013 that they are modern Muslims, not genuine Muslims.\u201d Ouch! She believes that this is the reason Muslim governments have not aided Uighurs.<\/p>\n But the Chinese construction of Uighurs as modern (as if genuine Muslims cannot be so) is perhaps part of the reason that Uighur men and women are getting such positive attention from the press. That\u2019s not to say that all the press attention is positive.<\/p>\n In the Foreign Policy <\/em>photo essay<\/a>, we are told that, \u201cUighur Islam is traditionally extremely moderate on social issues, though in recent decades, more fundamentalist traditions were introduced by students who studied abroad in Central Asian and Pakistani madrasas.\u201d This caption accompanies a photo of Uighur women leaving a mosque wearing black burqas<\/a>. Since the burqa is not the uniform of the majority of Uighur women, this photo is misleading.<\/p>\n And, in the AP story, it isn\u2019t until the end, after Muslim women are praised for their gallantry, are we told that the reason behind their public opposition:<\/p>\n \u201cWomen have been on the front line in Urumqi partly because more than 1,400 men in the Muslim Uighur minority have been rounded up by police since ethnic rioting broke out July 5.\u201d<\/p>\n So are we to believe that the Uighurs are not as bold as they sound? That, by contrast, the women only stole the limelight because they had to? Well, that\u2019s no fun.<\/p>\n Rebiya Kadeer\u2019s Solo Act<\/em> In a BBC article<\/a>, Kadeer smiles charismatically.\u00a0 \u201cI am involved in peaceful struggle for the people of the Uighur nation,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n The New York Times<\/a><\/em> describes Kadeer<\/a> as \u201cThe public face of an ethnic group that is little known in much of the world. Although her fame hardly approaches that of the Dalai Lama\u2026\u201d, while The<\/em> Christian Science Monitor <\/em><\/a>describes her as a \u201cspiritual leader\u201d and a \u201cmother figure.\u201d<\/p>\n In the Times<\/em> photo, Kadeer is poised with her hands in her lap, her long braids trickling down her two-piece suit. It is hard to believe that she would have been the media\u2019s poster child for Uighurs if she were clad in a burqa, a headscarf, an abaya, or chador.\u00a0 This leads me to believe that the U.S. and its media are invested in the melodramatic representation of a \u201cmodern\u201d unveiled woman opposing a giant government.\u00a0 It\u2019s as if the media is saying: \u201cMuslim women in (insert country here), listen up: America supports you in your struggle for independence, and will help you break free from that which hinders your movement.\u201d<\/p>\n The U.S. media has portrayed Kadeer as a savior, a noble freedom fighter who was imprisoned by Communists that don\u2019t value human rights, even as the Chinese media preaches the opposite. As an anchor on state-controlled China Central Television said: \u201cInitial investigations show the violence was masterminded by the separatist World Uighur Congress, led by Rebiya Kadeer.\u201d<\/p>\n The fact that The New York Times<\/em> calls an unveiled Muslim woman the public face of an entire ethnicity is, whether intentionally or not, politically motivated; it is not about autonomy of a people, but the direction of Chinese-U.S. relations. I haven\u2019t read a single U.S. news report that proved Kadeer is responsible for Uighur uprisings, or even hinted at the idea. This can only mean that the media isn\u2019t really uncovering facts, but assuming China is wrong because it is China\u2013a rapidly emerging threat in the race for the Number 1 Superpower slot.<\/p>\n Still, let us leave foreign politics aside and rejoice in the fact that western media coverage of the Uighurs and Kadeer does not harm Muslim women in America.\u00a0 It is positive because it shows an active, rich, articulate and brave Muslim woman. Kadeer spent time behind bars and came out stronger for it. She is a fighter and she is not afraid.<\/p>\n Here, we have a Muslim woman being portrayed as the actual leader she is, literally. Regardless of the intention behind the depiction, or the contradicting accounts of it, I think you\u2019d agree with me when I say that it is great to see the media glorify a Muslim woman for speaking out, instead of criticizing her traditions or otherwise deeming her an accessory of the dominant Muslim male, \u00bfque no?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Uighur Women in the Spotlight The media loves Uighur women. They give them lots of margins, and inches on front pages. They plaster their photos and quote them favorably. In prominent photo spreads, they marvel at their exotic traditional attire. They sympathize with their struggle against the brutal, ruthless Communist China. Looking at the photos […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":167,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,14],"tags":[280,281,1126,1419],"class_list":["post-4201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-politics","tag-china","tag-chinese-muslims","tag-rebiya-kadeer","tag-uighurs"],"yoast_head":"\n
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"Rebiya](\"https:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/ffximage\/2008\/02\/20\/kadeer_wideweb__470x373,0.jpg\")