Professor Rahile Dawut is an internationally acclaimed academic, anthropologist, and leading expert on Uyghur folklore and cultural traditions. She is an associate professor at Xinjiang University and founder of the university’s research centre on minority folklore, for which she won a grant from the Chinese Ministry of Culture.
In December 2017, Dawut was secretly detained by Chinese authorities, who did not confirm her location for five years despite international condemnation and an ongoing campaign for her release. It was confirmed in September 2023 that Dawut had been sentenced to life imprisonment for ‘endangering state security,’ and that her case had been denied an appeal. She continues to be held incommunicado.
In 2023, Rahile Dawut was announced as the winner of the PEN Pinter Prize for a Writer of Courage.
‘The generosity, determination, and unyielding humanity you have demonstrated has been felt by many people’
Philippe Sands, President of English PEN, writes for Rahile DawutBackground
Born in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Professor Rahile Dawut is a prominent anthropologist and leading expert on the study of Uyghur folklore and cultural traditions.
An associate professor at Xinjiang University and founder of the university’s Ethnic Minorities Folklore Research Center, Dawut is recognised internationally for her unique contribution to the study and cataloguing of Uyghur cultural heritage. Her work was also recognised and supported by the PRC government: in 2016, just a year before she was initially detained, Dawut received a research grant from the Ministry of Culture, reportedly the largest ever given to a Uyghur research project.
Rahile Dawut disappeared in late 2017, shortly after making plans to travel from Xinjiang to Beijing to participate in an academic conference.
In July 2021, investigative reporting by Radio Free Asia’s Uyghur Service finally confirmed that she had been imprisoned and sentenced by the Chinese authorities, according to sources within Xinjiang University.
In September 2023, it was widely reported that a sentence of life imprisonment on charges of endangering state security by promoting ‘splittism’, originally handed down in 2018, has now been upheld.
In response, Rahile Dawut’s daughter, Akeda Pulati, commented:
My mother is a distinguished scholar. She should be doing her research and enjoying her retirement life right now, but instead, she is in prison. And recent news about her life imprisonment not only devastated me, but also devastated anyone who loves her and who loves Uyghur culture. She is being punished for being a hard-working scholar and for loving culture.
In October 2023, English PEN was honoured to announce Rahile Dawut as the PEN Pinter Prize Writer of Courage 2023.
PEN considers Dawut’s imprisonment a clear breach of her right to freedom of expression and calls for her immediate and unconditional release.
Photo credit: Lisa Ross
