This “Chinese Rahat Abdullah” often appears on Pakistani YouTube and Facebook channels, dressed in either Atlas silk robes, traditional Pakistani attire, or traditional Chinese garb.
She is known as a Chinese online sensation, but she also performs on local radio in Urdu and prepares Uyghur foods on Pakistani TV shows, which she mislabels as Chinese.
Some Uyghurs in Pakistan are concerned that Beijing is trying to utilize local Uyghurs as pro-Chinese Communist Party propaganda tools in order to whitewash the Chinese government’s atrocious treatment of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, which has contributed to her meteoric climb to fame.
China has been criticized internationally for its use of forced labor and other human rights violations against the Muslim Uyghur population. Many Western governments, including the United States’, have condemned the atrocities as “genocide” or “crimes against humanity.”
It is said that Abdullah comes from the Xinjiang city of Ghulja (or Yining in Chinese). According to posts on Pakistani social media sites, she moved to the country in 2010 after receiving a legal degree in China.
She is shown in the videos as a messenger of goodwill between China and the mostly Muslim Pakistan, despite the fact that she has taught Chinese at many colleges in the country.
Uyghur refugee and trust founder Omar Uyghur claims that Abdullah does not associate with local Uyghurs in Pakistan.
“She doesn’t come to the weddings or the funerals,” he remarked. Uyghurs also avoid contact with her. She distributes false information in Pakistani media about how well off the Uyghur minority is.
Abdullah was able to go to Ghulja in June of last year, despite the fact that Uyghurs in Pakistan are restricted from traveling freely to Xinjiang and that some Uyghur women who are married to Pakistanis are being arrested by Chinese officials in the area.
She attended a wedding and videotaped traditional Uyghur music and dances to share with her Pakistani fans, giving them the impression that everyone in Uyghur society is happy and prosperous.
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