On Friday, April 7, Harvard Law School Advocates for Human Rights (“Advocates”) set up a table to stand in solidarity with Ekpar Asat, brother of the first Uyghur HLS graduate Rayhan Asat (LLM ’16). Over 200 students stopped by to learn about the injustice.
April 7, in fact, marked exactly seven years since Ekpar was wrongfully imprisoned in a Xinjiang labor camp, along with more than 1 million Uyghurs and other Muslims who have been detained by the Chinese government since 2017.
Before his incarceration, Ekpar was a widely acclaimed tech entrepreneur from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China. In February 2016, Ekpar traveled to the United States to take part in the prestigious International Visitors Leadership Program, sponsored by the State Department.
Just weeks later, upon his return to China, Ekpar disappeared. It was not until four years later that Rayhan learned her brother had been sentenced to 15 years in prison for “inciting ethnic hatred and ethnic discrimination.”
Advocates co-president Ariella Katz ’23 commented on the event:
This issue hits close to home for many of us, because Rayhan is our friend, and Ekpar’s story makes clear that even association with a powerful group like Harvard fails to provide protection against the abuses of the Chinese state. If we were born Uyghur, what is happening to Ekpar could have happened to any of us. Yet, because China is so powerful, the world is silent about these abuses. We hear about Ukraine and Myanmar but almost nothing about the crimes against humanity perpetrated by the Chinese state.
Back in January 2021, Advocates put out a joint statement to call for Ekpar’s release. The statement was signed by over 70 Harvard organizations, including HLS Immigration Project, HLS La Alianza, Harvard Law School Republicans, and more.
Students who attended last week’s event took pictures with a poster of Ekpar’s face over their own. Advocates plans to make a collage with the photos. Katz spoke to the purpose of the event:
We asked Harvard students to place Ekpar’s picture in front of their face, to, but for a few moments, walk in his shoes—and to send a clear message that we stand with him and the millions of Uyghur Muslims whose names China wants to make forgotten.
Across the globe, Rayhan Asat continues to fight for her brother’s release from London.