Chinese Muslim Activist Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

China counted on Rebiya Kadeer, a Muslim businesswoman-turned-activist, fading into political irrelevance like most exiled Chinese dissidents when she left for the United States last year. But it may have miscalculated.

Kadeer, 58, an ethnic Uighur jailed for more than five years in China for providing state secrets to foreigners before her exile, won a Rafto Prize for human rights in Norway in 2004 and has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize this year.

“Rebiya Kadeer champions the rights of western China’s Uighur ethnic group and is one of China’s most prominent advocates of women’s rights,” Annelie Enochson, a Swedish parliamentarian, wrote in nominating Kadeer for the prestigious Nobel award.

“Kadeer has also used her resources as founder and director of a large trading company in northwestern China to provide fellow Uighurs with training and employment,” Enochson wrote in the nomination, a copy of which was sent to Reuters by e-mail.

Sounds like a pretty impressive woman. And given that only 12 women have won the prize since 1901, it’s nice to see more female nominees.

Thanks to Matt for the link.

One thought on

I’ve said for a long time that the only reason the Uighur situation isn’t decried at least as loudly as the Tibetan situation is that, essentially, the Uighurs don’t have a Dalai Lama; their leaders keep falling mysteriously onto bullets, and they haven’t had a charismatic figure who can draw the world’s attention to what the PRC has done to them and their homeland.
That and, well, they’re Muslim, not Vajrayana Buddhist, and that’s just not as sexy in Hollywood. Look at how it gave the PRC pretext in the wake of 9/11/2001 to say, look, USians, we’ve got Muslim trouble too! and start killing their community leaders by the scores without much in the way of international comment.

Anyhow, I hope this will finally change that. All the best to her.

Comments are currently closed.