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268 15 Gendering Cyberspace Transnational Mappings and Uyghur Diasporic Politics Saskia Witteborn I want to be the mother of the Uigurs, the medicine for their sufferings, the cloth to wipe their tears, and the shelter to protect them from the rain. —Rebiya Kadeer1 Positioning herself as a compassionate“Mother of the Nation,” Rebiya Kadeer has emerged as a central figure in the transnational advocacy campaigns of the diasporic Uyghurs—a Turkic-speaking and predominantly Muslim minority community from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) in China.2 Her words and message, like the one quoted in the epigraph, from her biography, are displayed on various Internet websites and social networking sites such as YouTube and Facebook, projecting Kadeer as a spokesperson and human rights activist for the Uyghur people. Kadeer’s maternal image serves as a representational counterpoint at a time when diasporic Uyghurs have become visible in the Western media through the frames of terrorism and radical Islam. While Kadeer’s advocacy is perceived as subversive by the Chinese media, she claims status as an activist, author, and mother figure who sets the political agenda for the Uyghur diaspora and articulates a highly mediated politics of visibility for the community. Kadeer’s life is a story of success and suffering—a transformation from laundress to millionaire to her current status as a media-savvy international advocate. Through the recuperation of traditional gender roles and a strategic use of her image and personal narrative on the Internet, Rebiya Kadeer is able to create diasporic linkages and to mobilize an identity politics scripted for a transnational audience.3 The human rights story of Uyghurs has not traveled globally and made the same impact as the cause of theTibetans.4 International audiences are aware of Tibet mainly due to the Dalai Lama’s media presence, the exoticization of Buddhism, and celebrity involvement with the issue of Tibetan autonomy and human rights. Uyghurs, in contrast, are little known outside China, despite the fact that XUAR is a neighboring province of Tibet and that there are 8.4 million Uyghurs living in XUAR.5 As a Muslim minority, Uyghurs are perceived as posing a threat and a danger. After the uprisings in XUAR in the 1990s and the attacks on September 11 in the United States, the Chinese government and the U.S. government under George W. Bush tried to link Uyghur separatism 269 Gendering Cyberspace with fundamentalist branches of Islam and terrorism—allegations which have not been proven.6 The Uyghur diaspora, under the leadership of Rebiya Kadeer, strives to raise global awareness about the problems faced by this community in China and also to challenge existing perceptions of them as dangerous. In a 2009 interview , Kadeer states emphatically,“I have become the No. 1 enemy of the Chinese authorities because I am the voice of my people.”7 Kadeer’s profile as a political dissident has a sensational trajectory—a former entrepreneur and millionaire from a remote region of China who lost all her wealth and now lives as a human rights activist in Washington, D.C. As spokesperson and “Mother of Uyghurs,” keeping alive the diasporic political spirit has become Kadeer’s life mission. The Rebiya Kadeer narrative and the shape of Uyghur diasporic politics are deeply embedded within the realm and possibilities of new media technology. It is through the virtual circulation of exilic discourse and emotional appeals that Kadeer is able to get the attention of a global audience to focus on the Uyghurs and their claim of cultural autonomy.An audience base spread across nations and borders, especially when formed around a platform of common values such as human rights and social justice, plays a significant role in strengthening diasporic activism and forging transnational connections. The Uyghurs have responded to this exigency by using the persona of Rebiya Kadeer as a focal point for scripting her charisma to the needs of their global activism and publicity.8 Uyghur cultural politics is being defined outside the nation through a particular deployment of gender and cultural scripts that travel between tradition and modernity, the local and the transnational. Through an analysis of the embodied presence and persona of the leader of Uyghurs, Rebiya Kadeer, this chapter demonstrates how this leader appeals for global support by combining images of motherhood and a discourse of protection addressed to her diasporic“family,” whose very presence she claims is being threatened.9 The chapter demonstrates how new media technologies mobilize diasporic politics through the...

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