WUC Chair Rushan Abbas to Release Memoir Chronicling Uyghur Human Rights Struggle
By Uyghur Times Staff
May 2, 2025 – Washington, DC
Prominent Uyghur human rights advocate Rushan Abbas is set to release her memoir, Unbroken: One Uyghur’s Fight for Freedom, on June 10, 2025, through Optimum Publishing International. The book, now available for pre-sale, offers a deeply personal account of her life as a leading voice in the global campaign against China’s repression of Uyghurs.
Background and Personal Journey
Rushan Abbas’s memoir traces her path from student-led pro-democracy activism in China during the 1980s to her emigration to the United States in 1989. Her work over the decades has been central in bringing international attention to the mass detentions, surveillance, and human rights violations against Uyghurs in the Uyghur homeland—actions the U.S. government has formally recognized as genocide.
Victim Stories and Impact
The book also shares Abbas’s own painful family experiences, including the imprisonment of her sister, Dr. Gulshan Abbas, by Chinese authorities in 2018. Her father, Abbas Borhan, a respected Uyghur scholar, lost his position as chairman of the Xinjiang Science and Technology Council due to her activism abroad.
Advocacy and Call to Action
As Executive Director of the U.S.-based organization Campaign for Uyghurs and Chair of the Executive Committee of the World Uyghur Congress, Abbas has become a leading advocate in the international human rights arena. Speaking recently to RFA Uyghur, she described the memoir as both a personal testimony and a political appeal, urging governments and citizens to act in defense of human rights and democratic values.
