Freedoms celebrated

It’s not often that someone who begins her career as a laundress ends up rising to international fame, but on Jan. 16, such a person came to Richmond for the First Freedom Awards gala.

Sponsored by the First Freedom Center and held at the Richmond Marriott, the annual awards ceremony honored four renowned advocates of religious freedom. Human-rights activist Rebiya Kadeer, who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, received the International First Freedom Award for her efforts on behalf of Chinese minorities and her leadership in the Uyghur self-determination movement.

An exiled Uyghur [pronounced WEE-gur] from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Kadeer rose from humble beginnings to create an import/export empire, and now heads the World Uyghur Congress. For her efforts to end economic andshe said, expressing contempt for the “bankrupt ideology” of the Chinese and their worship of power and money. “Religious freedom exists only on paper. “

Although Kadeer was once invited by the Chinese government to join both the National People’s Congress and the Political Consultative Congress, and in 1995 was a member of China’s delegation to the United Nations’ Fourth World Conference on Women, she was stripped of her memberships and imprisoned after trying to meet with a visiting delegation from the United States.

After six years – two of them in solitary confinement – she was released due to international pressure. Today she lives in the United States, and is the author of Dragon Fighter: One Woman’s Epic Struggle for Peace with China and frequent op-ed essays.

Dream come true
Tursunay