Why Uyghurs Support Iranian People’s Struggle for Freedom

By Tahir Imin

Jan 12, 2026

As a Uyghur, I come from a people who know too well what it means to live under authoritarian rule, to have our identity suppressed, our voices silenced, and our suffering denied. That experience shapes how many of us view struggles for freedom elsewhere — including the ongoing struggle of the Iranian people against an oppressive regime.

Many Uyghurs I know have expressed solidarity with the people of Iran. This solidarity does not come from ideology or geopolitics, but from shared pain and shared aspirations. We see in Iran a population that has repeatedly shown courage in the face of repression, demanding dignity, accountability, and the right to determine its own future.

My connection to Iran was shaped long before politics entered the picture. I grew up engaging with Iran through literature. Like many Uyghurs of my generation, I was influenced by the rich tradition of Persian literature. Along with many of my peers, I read Shahnameh, Gulistan, and Layli and Majnun, and developed a deep admiration for Persian literary culture.

Classical Persian literature has long influenced Turkic literary traditions, including Uyghur literature. This shared cultural heritage is personal to me. One of my closest friends was arrested simply for translating Rumi’s Masnavi into Uyghur.

At the same time, we cannot ignore the role the Islamic Republic of Iran has chosen to play on the global stage. For years, the Iranian regime has been a political and strategic partner of the Chinese Communist Party — a government that is committing genocide against the Uyghur people. Through diplomatic support, silence, and cooperation, Tehran has aligned itself with one of the most systematic campaigns of mass detention, cultural erasure, and surveillance in the 21st century.

This partnership has consequences. When governments normalize or enable China’s crimes, they help sustain a system that threatens not only Uyghurs, but the basic norms of international human rights. The Iranian regime’s alignment with Beijing reflects a broader pattern: authoritarian governments protecting one another at the expense of their own people.

Yet it is crucial to distinguish clearly between a regime and a people. Uyghurs do not hold ordinary Iranians responsible for the actions of their rulers. On the contrary, many of us see the Iranian people as fellow victims of a system that prioritizes power, ideology, and foreign alliances over freedom and human dignity.

My Uyghur friends and I hope for an Iran that is free, democratic, and independent — an Iran no longer manipulated by authoritarian powers such as Russia and China, and no longer complicit in the suffering of other oppressed peoples. A future Iran that stands on the side of justice would be a powerful force for moral leadership in the region.

Solidarity among oppressed peoples matters. When Uyghurs speak out in support of Iranians, and when Iranians speak out for Uyghurs, we weaken the isolation that authoritarian regimes rely on. We remind the world that struggles for freedom are interconnected, and that silence in the face of injustice anywhere ultimately endangers justice everywhere.

The Iranian people deserve a future shaped by their own voices — not by repression at home or cynical alliances abroad. Uyghurs stand with them in that hope, not as outsiders, but as fellow human beings who believe that freedom, once denied, must still be demanded.

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Uyghur Times.

The Author is the founder of Uyghur Times.