“We have no choice my dear, it’s been 7 years, another 10 years to go.”
Uyghur women highlight their husbands' lengthy prison sentences
On the Chinese social media platform Douyin, Uyghur women have recently been posting short videos expressing grief, exhaustion, and longing for husbands who have been absent for years. The videos never directly explain why these men are gone. They do not mention concentration camps, prison, detention centers, forced labor camps or incarceration. They do not need to. Everyone watching already understands.
Montage (created by Kashgar Times) of 3 videos downloaded from “Eziz Veten” Facebook profile showing douyin videos from 4 Uyghur wives. Eziz Veten’s watermark ‘VT’ shows dates of original uploads.
Eziz Veten is a Facebook user who regularly uploads videos from Chinese social media onto his Facebook account highlighting China’s crimes and abuses.
Left to Right: Videos are still images with a message written on top of the image stating:
Video 1 - “We are the flowers who are dedicating our youth to waiting for our husbands.”
Video 2 - “The girls who are temporarily separated from their husbands, how are you doing, aren’t you tired?”
Video 3 - “How many of you are like me who have been waiting for a good day to come for the past 9 years with 3 children, are you also tired?”
Note: The screenshots of comments left under these Douyin videos can be found in the comment section of the Eziz Veten’s facebook video posts labelled above as “Video 1”, “Video 2” and “Video 3”.
We have hand-picked 9 screenshots showing the comment section of the Douyin videos to extract the actual meaning behind the videos.
Douyin comment section translated by Kashgar Times from Uyghur:
“For me it’s been 9 years and he’ll be coming in another 9 years.”
“It’s also been 9 years for my brother, it’ll be another 9 years, since he is alive there is still hope. We are desperate to see him as soon as possible.”
“We have the same destiny.”
“This all started in 2016.”
“I have gotten used to it, it’s been 8 years, another 2 years to go, I have two children.”
“When he was gone I had one [baby] in my stomach [pregnant] and one [child] on my lap, it’s been 12 years and another 5 years left.”
“2018 - 2038”“Mine left after 5 months of marriage, I have one son. It’s been 9 years, there’s another one and half years left, I am so tired.”
“The days that we have been waiting for are coming, let’s stay strong, I have also been waiting for 9 years, I have to wait another 7 years.”
“Let’s stay strong my friend, these days will pass.”
“It’s been 10 years, there’s still 11 years to go, my days are filled with waiting.”
“It’s also been 10 years for me, there’s another 10 years to go, I’m so tired.”
“I’m so tired too, I’m so sick.”
“For me it’s been 9 years taking care of my children [on my own], there’s 9 months left.”
“It’s been 13 years, 7 [years] to go.”
“4 years is also not a short amount of time.”
“We have no choice my dear, it’s been 7 years, another 10 years to go.”
“Stay strong, it’s also been 7 years for me too, I have 13 more years to wait, stay strong little sister.”
“Even though I’m tired, I’m living for my child.”
According to Eziz Veten, the husbands of the women in the videos and those writing in the comment section, “are currently serving time in prison, not in the camps. According to the comments gathered, Eziz says that “some [individuals] started to be sentenced from the 2010’s and as recent as a couple of months ago. I have seen around at least 10 videos like this.”
The language is careful and and coded. In East Turkistan today, speaking openly about the mass detention of Uyghurs can itself bring punishment. Kashgar Times confirmed that the videos were uploaded publicly onto Douyin. Days later, however, they could no longer be found. They were likely deleted, hidden, or removed. This pattern is familiar under China’s heavily monitored internet environment, where even emotional expressions can attract scrutiny if they hint at politically sensitive realities.
What makes these videos especially revealing are the comments left underneath them by other Uyghur women living through similar circumstances. Many describe separations lasting nearly a decade or more. Some speak of husbands taken away shortly after marriage. Others mention raising children alone while counting down years remaining until release dates. None explicitly say where their husbands are. Yet the timelines, the references to years remaining, and the shared understanding in the comments point to the same reality: large-scale imprisonment.
Several women refer to 2016 and 2018, years strongly associated with the escalation of mass internment and arbitrary detention policies targeting Uyghurs and other Turkic peoples. Since then, researchers, rights groups, and survivor testimonies have documented widespread detentions across East Turkistan. While international attention often focuses on camps, surveillance systems, and state policy, these videos offer a rare glimpse into the social consequences left behind inside Uyghur homes.
Chinese authorities have repeatedly claimed that the so-called “vocational training centers” in East Turkistan have been closed and that stability has returned to the region. But the videos shared by these Uyghur women suggest a very different reality. The comments speak of husbands serving sentences of 10, 15, or even 20 years, with many women still counting down years remaining before they can reunite with their families.
While the camps themselves may no longer receive the same international attention they once did, these videos indicate that long-term imprisonment, family separation, and the broader system of repression against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims remain deeply embedded in daily life across East Turkistan.
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