Jewher Ilham, daughter of Uyghur scholar and Chinese political prisoner Ilham Tohti, plenary address at the 12th Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy, February 18, 2020.
"Go. Don't cry. Don't let them think Uyghur girls are weak.": These were the last words my father said to me on February 2, 2013 when I left him in a white room at Beijing airport and got on a plane to the United States. I don't know where he is and I don't even know if he's alive. But his desires for freedom of thought and expression cannot be silenced.
