18 Facts About Rushan Abbas

Rushan Abbas is a Uyghur American activist and advocate from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China.

Rushan Abbas is the founder and executive director of the nonprofit Campaign for Uyghurs and was elected the Chairperson of the Executive Committee of World Uyghur Congress on October 26th, 2024.

Rushan Abbas serves as Chair of the Advisory Board of Germany's Axel Springer Freedom Foundation and as a board member of the Task Force on Human Trafficking within the Parliamentary Intelligence-Security Forum.

Rushan Abbas has received several awards, including the Freedom Fighter Award and the Huntington Her Hero Lifetime Achievement Award.

Rushan Abbas testified in 2019 before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in regard to the emergence of the Xinjiang internment camps, and the threat of Chinese power in the Eastern Pacific.

Rushan Abbas has testified before the House of Representatives on international religious persecution, forced labor, and human rights abuses as they relate to Uyghurs.

Rushan Abbas then continued her studies and attended Xinjiang University from 1984 until 1988 and majored in Biology.

Shortly after the September 11 attacks, Rushan Abbas worked as a contractor for the US military interpreting interrogations of Uyghur detainees at Guantanamo Bay through 2002.

Since the late 1980s, Rushan Abbas has been a campaigner for the human rights of Uyghur people around the world.

Rushan Abbas's activism continued in the United States, where she participated in protests against the Olympic relay in 2008 in San Francisco.

Rushan Abbas introduced and led the "One Voice One Step" Uyghur Women's movement; an organized demonstration that took place on March 15,2018, in 14 countries and 18 cities on the same day to protest China's detention of millions of Uyghurs in concentration camps.

On September 5,2018, Rushan Abbas participated on a panel discussion titled "China's 'War on Terrorism' and the Xinjiang Emergency" hosted by the Hudson Institute.

Rushan Abbas spoke about the ongoing persecution of Uyghurs in China, and described the camps being used to detain Uyghurs in China.

Rushan Abbas has been advocating for Uyghur people's rights, regularly appearing in the media, delivering public remarks in universities and forums, and creating international coalitions to draw attention to the Uyghur cause.

Since her disappearance, the Chinese Government has confirmed that her sister, Dr Gulshan Rushan Abbas, is being held in a prison inside China on alleged terror charges.

Rushan Abbas's work has drawn the ire of the Chinese Government on occasion, especially in the state-owned media apparatus, where she has been accused of being a member of a separatist group in East Turkistan.

Rushan Abbas has appeared before congress on multiple occasions to testify on issues of Human Rights, specifically as they relate to the status of Uyghurs living in China.

Rushan Abbas testified in 2019 before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in regard to the emergence of concentration camps in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and the threat of Chinese power in the Eastern Pacific.