You're Either a Yawax or Yaman

Yawax (well-behaved, rural woman) vs. Yaman (undisciplined, corrupt urban woman)

Finally, Uyghur women in Xinjiang have a subordinate status in society when inspecting the education and career aspects of their lives. Women receive little to no education in rural areas as parents believe it is not important for their lives. In accordance to religious education, women are not obtaining it as much as the males, who are superior in Islamic knowledge and are also forbidden to attend mosques.²⁷ This is vital for it could change their status in the community since they could interpret the Qur'anic texts and laws themselves. In doing so, it would give them authority for they will gain the ability to digest and question the information themselves, instead of relying on men. This situation embodies irony for, while the Uyghurs place the job of providing religious knowledge to their children, the women are not allowed to receive much of the education themselves. It also becomes paradoxical since women are forced to follow an image of being pious and virtuous, yet they are not allowed to be present in mosques. Increasingly, there are more mosques being built for women in Xinjiang and despite the backlash -mostly by men- women are benefiting from these mosques for they attain education, support and counselling.²⁸ Nevertheless, these mosques for women still teach traditional notions on gender roles, which in turn reinforces the low status of women. Women also gain religious education on things like “Muslim diet and conduct” within their homes, but this is still one-sided for it is taught within a patriarchal setting, which denounces their power.²⁹



Although Uyghur women are not acquiring religious knowledge to the degree that their brothers are, there is still secular education. However, many do not receive public education as Islamic information, customs and behaviours are prohibited in secular schools.³⁰ For example, Muslim girls are forbidden to wear their hijab and long skirts as it reflects secular practices that the government fears will obstruct its plan for a united nation.³¹ Hence, Uyghur parents do not feel it is safe to send their daughters to public schools where they are deprived of engaging with their religion.


(This table shows the decrease in illiteracy for girls in rural areas over the years; however, there is still a discrepancy between genders.)

Parents do not want to send their daughters to school for they feel it is useless (since there is no Islamic teachings in the curriculum) and will strip their daughters of their “modesty” and “purity”; therefore, they keep them in homes, where they help with household duties.³² This hampers the women's influence in society for they are not able to pursue an education, which could eventually lead them to being autonomous once obtaining a career. One negative effect has been the lack of opportunities for women. Since women are not given the chance for education³³, they are left with no option but to marry in order to ensure their economic survival, which again, only supports the decrease in their power; follow traditional roles and lack of economic power in marriages.



There are also several other problems created, in which women are not the only ones being affected. First, by fortifying traditional roles on these girls, the Uyghurs are restricting their movement and also the community's advancement since their daughters could learn Chinese, which would help them secure jobs. This diminishes the community's progress as well for not many Uyghurs are able to find a well-paying job, as they do not meet the requirements of reading and speaking Chinese. Although the Uyghurs are hindering their daughters' secular education as a reaction to protect their ethnic and cultural identity, it still becomes a disservice to them and more importantly, to the women. Yet, the Uyghurs are not the only ones to blame for if the seemingly atheistic government were not so paranoid about incorporating Islamic education into schools, then Uyghur women would be able to attend school.

On a side note, Maria Jaschok and Hau Ming Vicky Chan believe that education will not entail a “panacea to the problem of women's exclusion from knowledge and voice.”³⁴ While this may be true to some degree, this argument does not look towards future for change takes time to occur. Moreover, education does offer both power and information that creates leverage over others...after all, such is the case for the Uyghur men in Xinjiang.



On the other hand, women are also hindered in attaining a higher status through the career field. Many Uyghur families in rural regions are not allowing their daughters to seek a job for they view it as a contamination of their purity, which will harm future marital prospects.³⁵ Since these jobs are located within urban cities, the Uyghur become insecure as they connect modernity with corruptness.³⁶ Taheer, a 25 year old bachelor directly stated that he would not marry a woman that had a job “because there's a chance she would not come back with her virginity.”³⁷ Women are then discouraged from getting a career since their main objective is to be chaste for their future spouse. This is clearly unfair for men are not pressured to hold such traits and are allowed to get a job and education, without having their character questioned as the women are.