CNN —The United States has condemned China’s reported sentencing of prominent Uyghur academic Rahile Dawut to life in prison, calling for the immediate release of the scholar known for documenting folklore and traditions of the Muslim minority in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region. A renowned scholarRahile Dawut is known as a foremost scholar of Uyghur culture, who focused her work on folklore and religious anthropology, including documenting Uyghur pilgrimage to religious shrines throughout Xinjiang. Through her collaborations with international researchers, guest lecturing and teaching, she is credited by international academics with fostering a greater global understanding of Uyghur culture and making key contributions to preserving and documenting Uyghur heritage and architecture. In 2007, Rahile Dawut founded a center focused on folklore at Xinjiang University, where she was a professor. According to San Francisco-based Dui Hua, Rahile Dawut was tried in 2018 of for “splittism” or political separatism – a crime of endangering state security.

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Persons: China’s, Dawut, Rahile Dawut, ”, Rahile, Matthew Miller, “, Dawut’s, San, Hua, –, Rahile Dawut’s, Ilham Tohti, OSUN Organizations: CNN, US State Department, Hua Foundation, Rights, United Nations, UN, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, PRC, People’s, The State Department, Xinjiang University, American Anthropological Association, Beijing’s Minzu University, Open Society University Network Locations: United States, China’s, Xinjiang, China, People’s Republic of China, San Francisco, ”