On Father’s Day, My Father’s Advice: The Voice of Thousands of Disappeared Uyghur Fathers
Seek the exile’s grief in foreign lands, away from home,
Ask the longing lover how deep the wounds become,
What meaning or taste is left in a life without a state?
Ask him who lost his homeland; he knows the bitter fate.
— From the Uyghur novel ”The Wandering Soul“
Today is Father’s Day. This is an extraordinarily important day for anyone who is blessed to still have a father. They celebrate this day, give gifts, and create unforgettable, beautiful memories. But for me, a Uyghur brutally separated from his loving father, Father’s Day is a day each year when the most painful memories are resurfaced. It is a day when the words of the very last phone conversation with my father echo incessantly in my ears.
The advice my father gave me then may well be the unspoken words of millions of Uyghur fathers who are currently undergoing subhuman humiliations in Chinese concentration camps across occupied East Turkistan. They are the words they cannot speak to their children in the diaspora, whose hearts break over the bitter fate of statelessness. This day marks the beginning of that sinister period for me, when I heard my father’s voice for the last time and when I was separated forever from him and nineteen other family members. On May 23, 2017, I spoke to my father over the phone for the final time.
”Father, how are you? Are you doing well?“ I asked him at the time, weeping. Ever since my mother passed away, his heart had been broken. While on the line, I felt intensely guilty before him and said crying, ”Forgive me, my unfilial son. When you lay sick in the hospital, I could not stand by your side to care for you. I have failed my duty as a son.“ My father consoled me with the following words:
”My son, do not break your heart. Who could have predicted that you would have to leave your homeland to live as a wanderer abroad? Behind every destiny lies a wisdom. We have a saying: ‘If your own land is safe, your countenance will not turn pale.’ In exile, in foreign lands, everything may be materially perfect, but a part of your heart always remains empty; you can never laugh from the depths of your soul. Yet exile forces you to overcome difficulties and live with even greater courage. You have come to understand life and the world. You may have found better answers to the question of why you had to leave your parents, your family, and your good job as a teacher to live as a refugee abroad. Wherever you live, never forget the motherland that raised you. Take good care of your family, raise your children well, and give them a proper education. In exile, your wife and children are your only solace. Making them happy is making me happy.“
For as long as I can remember, my late father always listened meticulously to the words of his own father. He lived strictly by our Uyghur proverb: ”If your parents are pleased, God is pleased.“ I, too, always attached enormous value to my father’s advice. During that short conversation, he also said the following to me:
”My son, you live in a country that is totally different from ours in terms of religion, culture, and traditions. Therefore, abide by the laws of that country and be a good citizen. Rely on your own strength to make a living. We Uyghurs say: ‘Do not humiliate yourself, but exhaust your own strengths.’ My son, when you told me that you had successfully studied in the Netherlands and started working as a soil analyst at a soil research institute, I was so incredibly proud of you! Thoroughly learn the soil technology of a country like the Netherlands, which is a global leader in agriculture. Do not stop only at your work, but study hard further to surpass yourself. In the land where you were born and raised, agriculture and land management are the foundations. The agricultural development of your homeland sorely needs the advanced technology of the West. Should a day come when you get the chance to return, take that Western technology with you. It is precisely then that your skills will play a major role in developing agriculture on the soil where you grew up. The Netherlands is now your second homeland, the motherland where the umbilical cord of your children was cut. Work hard, add value to society, because only then will you possess dignity. Be an example for your children and ensure they get an excellent upbringing.“
Since the Chinese government permanently wiretaps foreign phone calls, we were extremely cautious with our words at the time. While speaking, my father sighed deeply. Through that, I felt the words he could not speak aloud. I could not have imagined in my wildest dreams that these, as if his soul already sensed it, would be his very last words and his testament to me. Since that day, I have never been allowed to hear my father’s voice again.
The Testimony in Court and China’s Cruel Revenge
Seven years later, in July 2024, I was invited by the The Court of Citizens of the World to testify in the trial where Xi Jinping was indicted for violating the Rome Statute. To prevent me from participating in this court, the Chinese government temporarily took my sick father and my brother out of the concentration camp. They forced them to call me to compel me to waive my testimony.
When I refused this staged encounter, they immediately sent me a video via Telegram showing my father terminally ill and lethargic on a bed, while my brother stood next to him, under heavy pressure ”advising“ me to stop. This was meant to break me psychologically and emotionally. It was the very last time I saw the face of my ailing father.
However, this rancid blackmail by the Chinese government could not deter me from appearing before the court. The court ultimately issued a symbolic arrest warrant against Xi Jinping based on eleven crimes against humanity. In revenge, the Chinese government immediately locked my sick father back into the concentration camp, where he was killed through torture two months later. This tragic news was officially investigated and confirmed by the prominent journalist Shohret Hoshur of Radio Free Asia.
I miss the voice of this caring, hardworking, and sincere father so terribly. His face is forever seared into my retina. Sometimes I dream that we are having a warm conversation, and sometimes I wake up from my dream in the middle of the night, weeping. Father, I miss you so! Only now do I feel your value even deeper, because I am now a father myself and know how hard it is to raise children and bring them up healthy.
Father, you used to say: ”I burn with love for my child, and my child burns for his own.“ Every time my children climb onto my shoulders, I remember these words. You have fully fulfilled your duty as a father; my duty has only just begun.
Within our people, we have the wisdom: ”The son is the secret of his father.“ Whenever I discover good qualities in myself, I praise God and realize that this is the legacy you left in me. I am now trying to pass these virtues on to my own children. Your smile is my inspiration; your calmness urges me to patience. Your sense of justice taught me to see the distinction between right and wrong, between friend and enemy. You are my glorious ancestor; you are my guide. May your resting place be in paradise, father!
My Father: A Mirror of Millions of Uyghur Fathers
My personal tragedy is unfortunately not an isolated incident, but the daily, bitter reality of millions of Uyghurs in occupied East Turkistan. This genocide, which the world thought would never happen again in the 21st century and which China anxiously tries to hide, continues unabated today.
What is really happening now and how many victims are there
According to independent reports by the United Nations (UN-OHCHR) and Amnesty International, between 1 million and 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim minorities have been unlawfully detained in camps since 2017.
Although the Chinese authorities claim that these camps have since been closed, the situation has in reality transformed into a structural and permanent system. Research by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) and Dr. Adrian Zenz shows that at least 500,000 Uyghurs, following the so-called closure of the camps, were transferred to formal prisons with long-term sentences. Millions of others are being deployed by the state for large-scale forced labor in factories and fields.
Where are the camps and what is happening there
Research using satellite imagery by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) has uncovered more than 380 large-scale detention camps and high-security prison complexes spread across the entire region—from Kashgar and Khotan to Urumqi and Ghulja.
Behind these walls, a systematic destruction of identity takes place: torture, brainwashing, forced sterilization of women, and a total ban on the Uyghur language and the Islamic religion. While parents disappear into prisons, their children are placed in state-run boarding schools, where they are completely alienated from their mother tongue and culture. These crimes of the Chinese government have now been officially recognized as genocide by the parliaments of over ten countries, including the Netherlands, Canada, and the United States.
On Father’s Day, I remember my father’s smile. His words are the compass of my life. I will continue to make his voice heard, not only for my own children but for the millions of Uyghur fathers and children who are brutally separated from each other today.
Rest in peace, my dear father!
Abdurehim Gheni Uyghur
Date: 19-06-2026
Sources and International Reports:
1. United Nations (OHCHR): OHCHR Assessment of human rights concerns in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region
2. Amnesty International: China: “Like We Were Enemies in a War”
https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/asa17/4137/2021/en/
3. U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM): Coercive Population Control in Xinjiang
https://www.ushmm.org/genocide-prevention/countries/china
4. Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI): The Xinjiang Data Project
5. https://bitterwinter.org/a-uyghur-father-persecuted-to-death-his-son-remembers-him/
