Mamtimin Ala, a Uyghur intellectual from the Australian diaspora, published two books on the Uyghur genocide nearly simultaneously. His work addresses China's recent radical change in policies (especially since 2016) toward its Uyghur citizens in what is now called the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, which the Uyghur diaspora prefers to call East Turkestan. Documented atrocities against Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples include detention in a huge network of internment camps, intense surveillance, seizure of children, rape, and sexual harassment.Footnote ¹ Seven Western countries have already called China's crimes against the Uyghurs genocide. Scholars and legal experts are calling on the world to end this genocide.Footnote ²

A Uyghur-language version of Ala's book aimed at a Uyghur readership was published at the end of 2020, followed by this one in English for the Anglophone public. The content of the two books is close to identical, although Ala states in the English-language version that the latter was sent for publication before the writing of the Uyghur version, and therefore one is not simply a translation of the other. Indeed, although the books share the same content as regards the majority of the points raised, Ala explains in the Uyghur-language version that each book was written with its own audience in mind: the English-language book is intended to introduce a non-Uyghur readership to the evolution of Chinese politics toward the genocide currently being perpetrated in the Uyghur region and to call upon the world to intervene. By contrast, the Uyghur-language version is meant to rattle those Uyghurs of the diaspora who are still gripped by fear or who cling to a false hope that finds its expression in silence and inaction. It is interesting to note that in the English version, Ala uses the term “cultural genocide,” whereas in the Uyghur book, he uses the word “genocide” (U. qetli'am) unqualified. There, he insists on the concept and goes so far as to lay out the five elements that constitute genocide according to the 1948 United Nations convention, demonstrating how each point is applicable to the Uyghur situation (p. 15).

Although there are many intellectuals within the Uyghur diaspora, most of them work in the natural sciences, with very few trained in the social sciences or humanities. In Uyghur studies, it is rare to see work by the latter in non-Uyghur-language publications. This is why such a book of reflections on the crisis facing the Uyghurs, written by a Uyghur intellectual for a non-Uyghur audience, was much needed. This is even more the case when we consider that in 2020 and up to today, in such diverse areas as academia, the media, or politics, non-Uyghur intellectuals, journalists, and politicians still often hesitate before using the term “genocide” when referring to the crimes committed by China against the Uyghur people.

Ala is at pains to detail the reasons that impelled him to write the book, so much so that he dedicates an entire chapter to the matter. He starts his book by stating “I am a Uyghur,” and he immediately adds that this is not an academic analysis of the Uyghur situation in East Turkestan, nor is it an anthropological or sociological treatise. It is, instead, a book of philosophical, political, and psychological reflections, forged by his own experience, as well as through indirect interviews and observations in the Uyghur diaspora in different countries. Ala positions himself as an intermediary between the outside world and the Uyghurs locked up in the camps or prisons in the Uyghur region. However, there is no clear structure to his reflections. The nine chapters of the book do not seem to follow any internal logic, nor are they linked together by any central question to be answered. They instead appear to be a fluid sharing of the thoughts of an intellectual on Uyghur suffering in general.

A doctor in philosophy, Ala reflects on the origins of China's heinous policies aimed at controlling Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples, as well as the consequences of these racialized and then segregationist policies. All the while, he shares his philosophical and psychological analysis of a number of Western writings on the subject of genocide. This brings him, in the third chapter, to develop four modalities of being Uyghur in the world today: through experiences of fatalism, shame, guilt, and helplessness (p. 23). Starting with the Turkic notion of “kismet” described by Nietzsche, Ala attempts to explain the lack of action in the Uyghur diaspora by invoking Uyghurs’ internalized acceptance of defeat in the face of an all-powerful enemy. He then delves into the feelings of shame experienced by members of the Uyghur diaspora, especially by men confronted with the revelations and testimonies of attacks perpetrated against women by means of rape and mass sterilization. This is followed by a feeling of helplessness, closely connected to the shame and guilt of the survivors. Ala's discussion illustrates the dangerous consequences that the genocidal situation within the Uyghur homeland is having in the diaspora.

As an intellectual and a philosopher of the diaspora, Ala accurately details the helplessness felt by the community he belongs to, the fear for the survival of Uyghur identity and concern as to the future of the nation, the feeling of contradiction between hope and despair when confronted with the passive attitude of the outside world, such as the so-called democratic governments, as well as the disgust experienced when faced with Muslim countries who collaborate with China and even publicly deny the ongoing genocide. Much of these experiences and analyses are shared by other intellectuals in the diaspora. However, on other points, his analyses remain his own. This is the case, for example, in chapter 3, where he draws a parallel between the indifference and inhumanity of the world and the cruelty and inhumanity of the guards in the camps (p. 18). While both attitudes mentioned are to be condemned, the scale of the immorality is not directly comparable.

In chapter 3, when speaking about the feeling of shame experienced by Uyghurs following revelations and testimonies of the rape and mass sterilization of women, Ala explains, quite rightly, that the perpetration of rape plays a political role. This violence, he says, is particularly serious in Uyghur culture, which is very conservative. But, he adds, it is also a culture in which women are highly respected (p. 30). Still, conservative gender roles position the female body as the honor of the nation, while men dominate most social spheres. Thus, women are not really respected, and they are still seen to be inferior to men. The Uyghur women's movements that had just timidly emerged between 2010 and 2016, and which pushed for the liberation of very conservative minds and for equality between women and men in the home space, were immediately buried with the arrival of the new Communist Party secretary Chen Quanguo and the mass arrest of intellectuals since the end of 2016, among whom there were many women.

One of the points that most bothered me in Ala's two books (both the Uyghur and English versions) was the author's emphasis on the fundamental role played by the testimony of Omar Bekali in the media coverage of the crisis. Bekali was the first among the Uyghur and Kazakh survivors who revealed the horrors of the camps (in early 2018). By contrast, Ala's books give little attention to the essential testimonies of female survivors, which also played a fundamental role in advancing the cause. In fact, Omar Bekali is the only man among the ten or so survivors of the camps who has exposed Chinese crimes in the West and continues to do so. The women survivors who were also brave enough to tell their stories—for example, Mihrigul Tursun, Tursunay Ziyawudun, Qelbinur Sidiq, and Sayragul Sautbay—are not mentioned with the respect they deserve. It seems as if only the testimony of the male survivor is important to Ala. Further, since 2017, we have witnessed a dramatic change in the diasporic sphere of the Uyghur people's struggle as more and more women have taken on prominent roles. Even ordinary male members of the diaspora readily acknowledge the effectiveness of women in the struggle and their increasingly assumed leadership, yet Ala fails to mention this. If for the past four years the diaspora struggle has made progress, despite the author's gloomy outlook, it is precisely because of the rising number of women, especially young women, who have made the decision to take matters into their own hands and to no longer leave the fate of the Uyghur nation in the hands of men who have so far proved ineffective.

Finally, although Ala rightly paints a dark psychological picture of the diaspora and the feelings of despair of its members in the face of international indifference, he does not see the progress made by the Uyghur struggle despite grave hardship. This progress has been made through the emergence and emancipation of young Uyghurs and particularly of Uyghur women, who are now at center stage, making their voices heard, making demands, and mobilizing the Western societies in which they live. This is the case in the United States, in Canada, and, above all, in Europe, particularly in Great Britain and France. As long as intellectuals and politicians in the diaspora maintain their sexist conservatism and remain in denial about the role and effectiveness of women's leadership, the battle against genocide and for the freedom of the Uyghur nation will only be made longer and more painful.