Imprisoned Uyghur academic named 2023 PEN international writer of courage
Leading Uyghur professor Rahile Dawut has been named this year’s international writer of courage. Having been missing for six years, last month Dawut was reportedly sentenced to life in prison by Chinese authorities on charges of endangering state security.
Dawut was picked by Michael Rosen who, as winner of the PEN Pinter prize, shares the award with a writer of courage, selected from a shortlist of international writers who have actively defended freedom of expression, often at risk to their own safety.
Rosen chose Dawut, a global expert on Uyghur folklore, because he had “devoted many hours to the enjoyment and study of folklore” and was “pushed towards sorrow and anger on hearing that someone could be imprisoned for precisely the kind of interest that I have”.
An associate professor at Xinjiang University and founder of the university’s research centre on minority folklore, Dawut was due to travel to Beijing for an academic conference in December 2017. However, the now 57year-old never reached her destination and her whereabouts remain unknown.
Three years after her disappearance, Dawut’s former co-workers were able to confirm that Chinese authorities had imprisoned her on charges of promoting “splittism”. Last month, the US-based Dui Hua Foundation human rights group, which has been trying to locate Dawut, reported that she had lost an appeal against her sentence of life imprisonment.
Dawut’s PEN Pinter award was accepted on her behalf by Rachel Harris, professor of ethnomusicology at SOAS. Dawut’s daughter, Akeda Pulati, said: “My mother is a distinguished scholar. She should be doing her research and enjoying her retirement right now, but instead she is in prison.”
“Recent news about her life imprisonment not only devastated me, but devastated anyone who loves her and who loves Uyghur culture,” Pulati added. “She is being punished for being a hard-working scholar and for loving culture.”
During his address at the prize ceremony in London, Rosen said: “Standing here in the British Library, I could not be more aware of the huge gulf between the kind of freedoms I have, or often take for granted, but are denied to many others in the world.”
The author, best known for his books for children, expressed admiration for Dawut, and said he “fervently hope[s] that whatever we are doing here today, helps her case”.
“I wish her all the mental and physical strength she needs, or as my parents would say: ‘Sh’koyech’ – a Hebraic Yiddish saying, meaning something like a mix of appreciation and wishing strength to someone.”
Dawut is a longstanding case of concern to PEN and is among the writers featured in English PEN’s international letter-writing campaign, PENWrites, in solidarity with writers in prison and at risk around the world. The non-profit writers’ organisation considers Dawut’s imprisonment to be a clear breach of her right to freedom of expression and calls for her immediate and unconditional release.