How I escaped a Chinese internment camp

Zumrat Dawut is a mother of three from Ürümqi, the capital of the Xinjiang autonomous region in China. She described how the area turned into a police state, with Chinese authorities actively monitoring Uyghurs and taking anti-Muslim actions.

This culminated in 2018, when she was arrested and sent to a detention facility for Uyghur women where she said she endured brutal living conditions and beatings.

That was just the beginning of the troubles for Dawut, who with her husband would soon hatch a plan to escape the country.

This comic, featuring art by Fahmida Azim, tells Zumrat's story as told to Insider through a series of interviews as well as testimony given to the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Zumrat Dawut tells the story of her marriage and early life in Urumqi: "I was born on 16 June 1982 in Ürümqi, East Turkistan, a part of China. My husband and I weren’t rich, but we were happy. We loved to travel with our family. I liked how free the places were. In Ürümqi things were never great. And then it got worse"

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Zumrat Dawut explains how the government in Urumqi began to monitor and persecute Uyghurs. "In November, 2016, Chinese authorities began to build police stations every 300 meters in the residential areas. They forced us to install a special application on our phone. Each time I said anything related to the Muslim religion, the police would call me immediately after and ask me what I had said. People would be seized if the authorities found anything representing the Muslim faith in their homes. So people threw out their stuff. The sewers were lines with their copies of the Quran and other objects."

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Zumrat Dawut tells the story of her arrest and interrogation. "March 31, 2018. Just as I was preparing lunch, I got a phone call to report to the police station immediately. I thought it was just a check-in. They asked me about my phone calls. About my visits abroad. Which Uyghurs I had met there. Whether my husband encouraged me to have more children. Whether I had more children because of my Muslim religion."

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Zumrat describes the beginning of her ordeal. "I thought they were going to shoot me. was in a kind of a military hospital. They took our fingerprints and photos. Vagina tests. An ultrasound. A blood sample. Eye scans. The police then took me to a car and placed a bag over my head."

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Zumrat Dawut is taken to a detention facility. "We travelled for one and a half hours. I realised I was in a detention camp. There were more than thirty women. Not everyone could fit in the beds available in the cell. I soon realised that the women were taking it in turns: half were lying, and half were standing, and they changed every three hours."

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Zumrat Dawut explains day to day life in the Uyghur detention facility. "Everyday we would be taken to a large hall, where we were made to sit for four or five hours at a time. On the second day in the camp, I was taken to a room. There were two boxes full of human hair." Dawut's hair is then forcibly cut.

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Zumrat Dawut talks about the food and sleeping arrangements of the detention facility. "The food quality was very bad. But as I was starving, I ate the food. There was an old woman who had diabetes, and I shared some of my bread with her. As they beat me, I accidentally mentioned the name of Allah and they beat me harder. On certain nights, the camp guards came to the cell to select young, pretty girls to take them away. On one occasion, I was able to ask one sister a little older than me what had happened. She told me that they had undressed her, made her naked, beat her and the police officers urinated on her. She tried to commit suicide that night. But since she didn’t have access to any rope, she tried to chew her own wrists."

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Zumrat's husband begins looking for answers. "My husband went around all the police stations in Urumqi to ask about my whereabouts. The police officials told him that they could not reveal anything to him, because of orders from higher authorities. So he went to the Pakistan Consulate in Beijing. Twice. Threatened to speak to international media outlets. The Beijing authorities got in contact with my husband and asked him to stop speaking to the media."

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Zumrat Dawut talks about what the objective of the facility was. "The camp guards stated that Allah does not exist… but Xi Jinping does and did many good things for us. On one occasion, after the class, they asked us “Does Allah exist?” and I could not say “No”. What kept me going through all of this… was vowing to not let them win. Not let the Uyghurs become extinct."

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Zumrat Dawut explains how her husband was able to get her out of the detention facility. "une 2, 2018. They again placed a black hood over my head and drove me for about 1.5 to 2 hours. My husband was there, waiting. I was forced to sign a form stating that I had religious extremist ideas and that is why I had to go to the camp. I told my husband we needed to leave Xinjiang. We had to go."

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Zumrat Dawut explains what happened after she was released from the prison and of her sterilization. "The Chinese authorities instituted a forced “pairing” system. A family of four Han Chinese had to stay for 10 days in our home every month. I had to treat this family very well, including shopping for them. Every Monday morning, we were forced to attend a Chinese flag raising ceremony and praise Xi Jinping. At another flag raising ceremony, the authorities asked mothers who had more than two children to stay after the ceremony. I was given anaesthetic and lost consciousness. When I came to my senses, I felt a lot of pain. I had been sterilized."

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Zumrat Dawut tells how they planned to get out of the country. "My husband and I wanted to leave China with our family. But the Chinese authorities stated that I did not have sufficiently strong relations with Han Chinese to receive my passport. On January 27th, 2019, I had to report to a police station to answer several questions. I undertook not to reveal anything about the camps. I was allowed to buy a return air ticket to Islamabad. While there I received phone calls every day from the Chinese authorities asking me to give them names of Uyghurs I would meet in Pakistan. But we were going to leave as soon as we could."

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Zumrat Dawut explains how they escaped to the United States. "I was afraid that I would be arrested at any moment. But the plane left, bound for Washington. My husband warned me that the U.S. Customs would probably pull me aside. When he found out I was a Uyghur he wanted to know how I had escaped. He didn’t pull me to the side room. Instead he said “Welcome to America.”"

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Zumrat describes her arrival to the United States. " The Chinese government has made threatening calls asking me to stay silent and to “cherish my days with my children”. My brothers don’t talk to me anymore. I am 100% convinced that the Chinese government mentally or physically abused my father and caused his death. But I won’t be silent. I need to tell people what’s happening to the Uyghurs. When I’m not doing that, I spend time with my family. I also paint. And enjoy being free." Zumrat lives with her family in Virginia. Estimates are that 1 million to 3 million Uyghurs have been placed in re-education centers.

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