Muyesser Abdul'ehed

Abdul'ehed was born in Ghulja, a city in the north of Uyghur traditional of Xinjiang in China in the mid-1980s.[1] She studied Medicine at Peking University, followed by an MA in Public Health, from a Malaysian university.[1] During her undergraduate degree she began to write poetry and following her postgraduate degree decided to pursue a career in creative writing.[1]

In 2013, Abdul'ehed moved to Turkey and established the organisation Ayhan Education, whose purpose is to foster the Uyghur language in diaspora communities.[1] Their work includes publishing a Uyghur language magazine written by children, aimed at their peers.[2] The magazine is called Four Leaf Clover.[3] Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Hendan taught in-person language lessons, but since then has moved to digital tuition and reached more students as a result.[2]

Abdul'ehed's writing focuses on the experience of Uyghur people forced to live in internment camps.[1] Her novel Kheyr-khosh, quyash (Farewell to the Sun) is the first novel to describe Uyghur internment camps.[1] Some of her work focuses on women's experiences, including a poem from the perspective of a wife whose husband is interned.[4]

As of 2020, Hendan lived in Istanbul.[1] She has spoken out about how her father expected the family to be imprisoned due to civil unrest.[5] She lost contact with her family in 2017 and she has spoken about her feelings of survivor guilt.[6] Her family were forced to cease contact with her due to pressure from the authoritarian state in China, where even being in contact with a relative abroad is a reason for arrest.[7] She believes her cousin, Erpat Ablekrem - a professional football player, was interned as a result of contact with her.[7]

She was on the list of the BBC's 100 Women announced on 23 November 2020.[8]

• Kheyr-khosh, quyash (2020)[1]
• Missing you is painful (2012)[9]