Gulbahar’s family adapted to a lower standard of living than their previous life in China, along with a new language and culture. The adjustment was difficult. Three years later, Gulbahar visited family in China. She was shocked at how the discrimination against Uyghurs there had escalated. Uyghur cities were filled with police checkpoints, surveillance. Suddenly, Gulbahar realized how glad she was that her family had moved to France.

In 2016, ten years after emigrating, Gulbahar received a call from her prior employer in China asking her to return to handle paperwork. Shortly after arriving, she was arrested and convicted of conspiring against China. Gulbahar protested that she was innocent, but it made no difference. Gulbahar was imprisoned in a concentration camp. 

Police told Gulbahar that she would never see her family again, and she would live out the rest of her days in the camps. The living conditions were dismal, and the detainees suffered arbitrarily at the hands of the guards. Once, Gulbahar was shackled to her bed for twenty consecutive days as “punishment.” She never knew what the punishment was for. 

Twice a year, all inmates received mandatory injections. They were told that they needed to be vaccinated against the flu. But soon after receiving their injections, young women noticed that their menstrual cycles had stopped. Gulbahar tried to comfort them, but she feared that they were right: the injections were not flu vaccines, but injections to disrupt fertility. By sterilizing Uyghur women, China was working to destroy the Uyghur population. 

The camp officials did everything they could to prevent the detainees from fraternizing. Speaking Uyghur was forbidden, and they were not allowed to have private conversations in their cells, which were under constant surveillance. To prevent contact with other cells, detainees were not permitted to go near their cell door or even look through their cell door window. Officials coordinated each cell’s movement to minimize any interaction between cells.

Despite these restrictions, the detainees found ways to connect. They asked permission from the guards to teach Chinese to those who did not speak it, and were then able to speak in Uyghur to connect with these women. They used those minutes to relay support and care, becoming critical sources of support for each other. 

Gulbahar battled despair. She focused on her innocence, repeating to herself that an innocent person could not be imprisoned indefinitely. She imagined herself in different places around the world that she had traveled to. She pictured herself cooking in her home in France, making coffee, or baking sweets to give herself moments of happiness. She stretched and kept her body as active as she could so she would not physically deteriorate.

Unbeknownst to Gulbahar, her daughter and husband had been tirelessly advocating for her release. They publicized China’s atrocities to the media, governments, and human rights organizations. Their campaign so vexed China, that China decided to release Gulbahar in the hopes of silencing them. 

Before she was allowed to leave the camps, Gulbahar was subjected to a week of intensive interrogation, and was forced to record a propaganda video for the Chinese government to combat her family’s outspokenness against China. She was then placed in a house under constant surveillance, so she could gain weight and restore her appearance before returning to France.

At last, Gulbahar arrived home. She plunged herself back into her old life, spending time with her family, watching her newly born grandson, and returning to her active lifestyle. In this busy life, she found a way to forget the trauma she endured in China.

In 2022, Gulbahar published a memoir detailing her story: How I Survived a Chinese Reeducation Camp. She has since lost all contact with her family in China. Gulbahar hopes her memoir will convince anyone who doubts China’s persecution of the Uyghur people that the genocide is real. Gulbahar ultimately yearns for independence for East Turkestan (the major Uyghur region in China), because she believes that under China’s rule, the Uyghur people will never be free.