China imposing forced inter-ethnic marriages on Uyghur women

The Chinese government incentivized and forced inter-ethnic marriages that have been occurring in the Uyghur region since 2014, according to a report by a Washington-based advocacy group.

The new research by the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) is based on evidence from Chinese state media and policy documents, government-sanctioned profiles and testimonials, and accounts from women in the Uyghur diaspora.

The report, “Forced Marriage of Uyghur Women: State Policies for Interethnic Marriage in East Turkistan,” examines the Party-State’s role in promoting, incentivizing, and coercing interethnic marriage between Uyghur women and Han men in East Turkistan. The report offers evidence to show that the Chinese Party-State is actively involved in a campaign of forcefully assimilating Uyghurs into Han Chinese society through mixed marriages.

“This report brings to light another form of gender-based violence that demands action from concerned states, relevant UN agencies, and women’s groups,” said Omer Kanat, UHRP Executive Director. “The Chinese government targets women in its ongoing genocide of the Uyghur people. Uyghur women report routine sexual violence in China’s concentration camps and prisons, and evidence of the forced sterilization was integral to the genocide adjudication of the Uyghur Tribunal,” Kanat added.

The Washington-based UHRP urged women’s rights advocacy campaigns to call for accountability and end forced and incentivized marriages suffered by Uyghur and other Turkic women.