teachers were summoned to the Communist Party Office. All the selected teachers were ethnic minorities, none of them Han Chinese. They were told that they were assigned to teach Chinese language to illiterate students. Qelbinur was sent to teach for six months at a school for men. 

Her new job was grueling and frightening. Police officers escorted her to and from work. Electric wires encircled the building and armed guards filled the halls. Officials assigned Qelbinur a lengthy curriculum. She taught for 8-10 hours each day, with her classroom constantly monitored. Qelbinur’s adult students were forced to sit at tables and chairs designed for children. She realized she was actually in a prison, and her teaching role was intended to disguise the prison as a school. 

Qelbinur wanted to connect with the detainees, to help them or simply express empathy, but the guards forbade any student-teacher interaction external to the lesson plan. Eight cameras constantly monitored her classroom to ensure compliance. The surveillance was so intense that detainees guarded their facial expressions to prevent accusations of forbidden interactions. Like the detainees, Qelbinur learned to control her own emotions and facial expressions while in the camps to protect her students from accusations.

Qelbinur watched her students grow weaker day by day. The camp provided meager rations, and once a week, forcibly administered an injection and a pill. Qelbinur was told that these were nutritional supplements to strengthen her students, but she saw the detainees deteriorate and lose weight with each passing week. To this day, Qelbinur does not know what the injections contained.

After completing her six months of teaching, Qelbinur was immediately assigned to teach at a second camp. Qelbinur realized China would continually exploit her teaching in order to disguise the camps as schools. Therefore, she and her husband hoped to move to the Netherlands, where their daughter lived. However, China prohibits Uyghur people from leaving, and Qelbinur’s husband is Uyghur. Ultimately, Qelbinur and her husband decided that Qelbinur (who is not Uyghur) should go alone. She left her husband and her home, and moved to the Netherlands near her daughter. 

Since leaving China, Qelbinur has worked continuously to raise awareness of China’s atrocities. She recognizes that people don’t want to believe that genocide is occuring in the 21st century, and sees how China attempts to discredit and malign the reputation of all outspoken witnesses. Qelbinur speaks out to show the public the truth of the Uyghur genocide, and to motivate the world to take action. 

Qelbinur’s advocacy has incurred personal costs. Immediately after Qelbinur began speaking out, the Chinese government cut off her ability to contact her husband. She heard nothing from him for 10 months. Finally, her husband managed to contact her. He said that he was forced to denounce her in a video, and that he feared for his own well-being. Qelbinur has not heard from her husband since, and his current status is unknown. The day before Qelbinur testified at the UK Uyghur tribunal, China released the video of her husband in an attempt to delegitimize her testimony. 

Amidst the pain and trauma that Qelbinur has suffered, Qelbinur’s daughter gives her hope. Her daughter remained optimistic and encouraging throughout the difficulties Qelbinur faced, and gave Qelbinur the support she needed to keep going. Now that her father has disappeared, Qelbinur stays strong for her daughter.

Qelbinur knows that each day she speaks out, she is helping the world understand what is happening in East Turkestan. She is motivated by the hope that the millions of people suffering in East Turkestan will be freed, through her own efforts to speak out and through the efforts of others like her. Qelbinur urges anyone who hears her story to call on their government to take action and stop this genocide.