Jun 06, 2014

East Turkestan: Muslim Hospital Staff Face Ramadan Discrimination


Ethnic Turkic employees working at a hospital in East Turkestan (Xinjiang), China, will be unable to practice their religious duty during Ramadan due to a recent request made by hospital authorities. This decision is likely to contribute to intensified grievances of native Uyghurs in light of recent Government oppression of their cultural and religious practices.

 

Below is an article published by World Bulletin:

 

The Chinese Medicine Hospital in Yining, also known as Ghulja, a city in the traditionally Uighur province of East Turkestan (Xinjiang), has asked its Muslim staff not to fast this Ramadan “in order not to affect normal work and life.”

Sina Weibo reported that the county’s health department had made the request just three weeks before fasting for the Islamic holy month is due to begin on June 28 [2014].

Being asked to sign a pledge of compliance in a “responsibility book,” the Sina Weibo website published photographs hospital staff members of ethnic minority background, mainly female nurses, sitting in front of two large tables with their hands folded.

The region's native Uighur Muslims, an ethnic Turkic people, are likely to be offended by the request. They already blame curbs on Uighur religion and culture by the Han Chinese Communist Party for rising ethnic tensions in the region.