Sadyrzhan Ayupov hugged his wife for the last time seven years ago. After spending around ten years in Kazakhstan and having three children there, Miyasar Muhedam, a Uighur from Xinjiang, had to return to China in September 2016 to renew her visa. But after crossing the border at Khorgos post, her passport was seized and a few months later she was sent to a re-education camp with her brother and parents. Released three years later, she is still not allowed to leave China.
“I have been playing the role of mother and father for all these years,” sades Sadyrzhan, an imam whom The duty met in October in his apartment in Shelek, a small town located about a hundred kilometers from Almaty, in the southeast of Kazakhstan. The couple’s children were only 2, 3 and 8 years old when their mother was separated from them.
It was only two months after entering the camp, in March 2017, that Miyasar was able to inform her husband of her fate. “She fell ill and was taken to hospital. She asked for a nurse’s phone to send me a message,” says the 44-year-old man.
Then Sadyrzhan said he had not heard from his wife for many years. In 2021, after she was released, the Uighur man went to the Khorgos border crossing himself. “I found a truck driver going to Xinjiang. I gave him a letter I wrote to my wife giving her my new phone number and asked the trucker to go to his family’s address to give it to her. »
A few days later, Sadyrzhan received an extremely touching video from his wife, which The duty was able to watch. “I was surprised by your letter,” Miyasar told him, in tears. “I have photos of you that I keep with me. I haven’t forgotten you for a single moment,” she slips. Still moved today by watching the video, the man says he does not have “the words to express” what he felt when he saw these images for the first time.
In her message to her husband, Miyasar also mentions to him that if he had not alerted public opinion about her, he could have come to join her in China with a visa. “We could have been happy,” she maintains. Miyasar asks her to keep a low profile so that she can obtain a passport that will allow her to join her family in Kazakhstan.
But for Sadyrzhan, these are ideas that were put into his head. “If I hadn’t spoken to the journalists, she might have received a prison sentence [plutôt que d’être envoyée dans un camp de rééducation]. » He adds that he twice requested a visa to go to China, which he was refused. “And they only promise that she will have a passport,” which never happens, denounces the imam.
Quranic studies
Sadyrzhan and Miyasar met in 2016 in Egypt while they were both studying Quranic studies. A few months later, the couple moved to Kazakhstan, where Sadyrzhan is from.
This stay in Egypt would have been criticized by Miyasar by the Chinese authorities. As for his parents, they were allegedly convicted for teaching their children to pray, for visiting their daughter in Egypt and Kazakhstan, and for making a pilgrimage to Mecca, according to Sadyrzhan. Serving a 20-year sentence, Miyasar’s 64-year-old mother remains detained, while his father died at 69 after falling ill in the camp.
Stars
Miyasar has been messaging her husband and children more regularly for some time now. But these communications fade at times. “It’s like stars that light up in the sky, then disappear,” breathes Sadyrzhan. His wife, aged 36, has suffered gynecological problems since she was released and seems “very tired”, he says. Does he know what she experienced in the camp? “No, it’s impossible to talk about it. She only told me that she worked to manufacture electronic components. »
A few weeks ago, Miyasar moved near Beijing and communications are said to be more stable. But often Sadyrzhan has to act as interpreter between his wife and children, who grew up far from their mother. “She doesn’t speak Russian [comme ses enfants], but she understands it a little, while the two youngest do not speak Uighur, like their mother. »
Don’t irritate China
According to Sadyrzhan, the government of Kazakhstan is of no help to him in his efforts to bring his wife back to his side. “However, we have all the official documents which prove that we are married and that our children were born here. » The country does not want to irritate its powerful neighbor, he believes. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan did not respond to questions from Duty aimed at finding out what support he offered the family.
In the hope of resolving the situation, Sadyrzhan wishes to immigrate to a country that supports the Uighur cause. “If we continue to live in Kazakhstan, there is almost no chance that the government will help us. But if we go to a Western country, there may be a chance,” he believes.
The father still has hope that his wife will be able to leave China. “I will wait for him and not remarry [comme le permet la religion musulmane], he assures, his eyes full of love. If we don’t see each other again in this world, it will be in the next. »
With Naubet Bisenov
This report was financed thanks to the support of the Transat-International Journalism Fund.The duty.