It's so strange how different versions of this tragedy play out in different societies, over and over.
Her Uighur parents were model Chinese citizens. It didn’t matter.
When Zulhumar Isaac’s parents disappeared amid a wave of detentions of ethnic minorities, she had to play a perilous game with the state to get them back.
When they were young, Humar and Zumret were bullied constantly, in all the small ways that stay with children long into adulthood. Humar was followed home by one of her classmates, who shouted, using her full name, “Zulhumar eats pork every day!” until she burst into tears. Another day, Zumret, four years younger, came home from school crying; a group of students had refused to let her play with them, forming a circle around her as one girl taunted: “My dad said not to play with Uighur kids, because they all have scarlet fever. And when they grow up, it turns into leukemia, and they die! If we play with them, they will infect us, and we’ll die!”
glykosymoritis: Her Uighur parents were model Chinese citizens. It didn’t matter.