Uighur children at an orphanage in Urumqi, Xinjiang Province, are renamed with Han
Chinese names and disciplined for adhering to a Muslim diet. Radio Free Asia reports:
Children belonging to the ethnic Uyghur minority at an orphanage in northwestern China routinely undergo changes of identity in which they assume Chinese names, according to current and former employees.
[…]Children were also frequently transferred to foster homes in the rest of China, where they lived in a Han Chinese environment, and were fed pork and dog meat as part of their diet, she said. Both meats are forbidden to Muslims.
Those who protested were severely punished, Amangul [a former teacher at the Urumchi Welfare Institution for Abandoned Childre] added, who said Arzigul, 10, was disciplined for refusing to eat the food served to her.
“After she came back she was criticized, not allowed to talk to the other Uyghur children or Uyghur teachers, forced her to use her Chinese name Li Li, punished without food, and put in solitary confinement for two days,” Amangul said.
