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Bahram K. Sintash
I have been building a website called Uyghurism.com to launch digital copies of “Xinjiang Civilization” — it is the least I can do for my father, about whom I have heard no news since he was detained.
Bahram K. Sintash is an Artist, Open-source Researcher, Multimedia Designer and he has vast knowledge of Uyghur history and culture from both his own readings of many Uyghur books and from his father, who is well-known Uyghur Journalist.
Profession:
He graduated in art and design from Xinjiang Art Institute and worked as a stage designer at XJTV Station for three years in Urumqi. His education and career in art mainly relates to and stems from Uyghur culture and history. In his younger years, he traveled to every Uyghur region to study Uyghur culture and architecture. He published his research on Uyghur architecture history in the Xinjiang Art Institute Journal in 2005. In 2006, he studied Media and Journalism at the Xinjiang Radio & Television institute. He continued his career as a Multimedia Designer after he moved to the US. In 2016, he studied User Experience Design to improve his skills in app design and social media campaign strategy at General Assembly in Washington DC.
Press and News:
Since he has learned about his father Qurban Mamut’s detention in 2018, he started his activism in high gear. He understood his responsibility in being the voice of the voiceless Uyghurs in the concentration camps in his homeland. He has worked tirelessly in hopes of bringing more attention to the plight of Uyghurs. He has worked closely with news agencies around the world and provided valuable information and analysis about his father and the Uyghur crisis to the news. Since 2018, he received more than 50 interviews from reporters around the world; and many of his quotes were covered on mainstream news such as, NY Times, Business Insider and TRT World. His op-ed China is trying to destroy Uighur culture. We're trying to save it was published in the Washington Post on March 18th 2019.
Research:
Since February 2019, Sintash investigated and researched demolished mosques, Islamic architecture, Uyghur neighborhoods and Uyghur cemeteries; in order to expose China’s cultural on-going genocide in XUAR to the world. He published a list of demolished mosques on Uyghurism.com after one month of investigation in April 2019. Guardian and AFP used the list of demolished mosques he published for their repost as source of evidence.
He has been working closely with AFP reporters for two in-depth reports on cultural genocide in XUAR. In July, the AFP reports published and brought a big impact. He successfully completed a report entitled, Demolishing Faith: The Destruction and Desecration of Uyghur Mosques and Shrines for UHRP and presented his research at the Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom in June.
In October 29th, 2019, Bahram gave a speech and presented his Demolishing Faith report findings at the National Endowment for Democracy conference in Washington DC. His report exposed China's crime against Uyghur and Uyghur culture; and is now known as one of the most documented reports on the current crisis in the Uyghur region.
The report caught many media attention and became a source of proven evidence for the news highlighting the state tyranny in XUAR. CNN, Washington Post, DW, AFP, NPR, VOA and etc. polished news stories about findings in the report. Washington Post published a power opinion piece, In China every day is Kristallnacht, using the report as a source and introducing Bahram Sintash and his work. The report mentioned in U.S. State Department 2019 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices and U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom 2020 Annual Report.
In November 2018, he built Uyghurism.com to preserve digital copies of the popular Uyghur journal Xinjiang Civilization.
Media/Design:
Since December 2018, Sintash published short news videos using his multimedia design skills to expose the Uyghur plight on Sintash Media’s Facebook account. Many of those videos were viewed tens of thousands of times on Social Media. He also designed more than 30 posters for a worldwide Uyghur campaign. The posters he has designed were used more than 100 times in Uyghur protests and expos in many cities around the world. In June 2019.
Advocacy:
In may 2019 he established Uyghur American Meshrep Group and mobilized Uyghur Americans to urge the U.S. Congress to ratify the Uyghur Human Right Policy Act of 2019. He visited more than 380 senators and congressmen/congresswomen's offices with his lobbying group in Washington DC.
Social Media Campaign:
From July to December 2019, he started the #ProveThe90% #StillNoInfo campaigns and mobilized Uyghurs overseas on Social Media. The hashtags are reference to remarks made by the Xinjiang Chairman, Shohrat Zakir. Many news agencies and news outlets published their news using the #ProveThe90% and #StillNoInfo hashtags as important evidence to expose China’s lies regarding the reality of concentration camps in XUAR.
These Social Media campaigns were effective movements that came after the #MeTooUyghur campaigns. Sintash was also one of the core members who supported the #MeTooUyghur campaign.
Bahram K Sintash
Sintash's father Qurban Mamut worked for the most popular Uyghur journal Xinjiang Civilization from 1985 until he retired as editor-in-chief in 2011, and was known for selecting works by the region’s most influential writers on Uyghur culture, history, politics and social development for publication. Qurban Mamut played an important role in illuminating the ethnic consciousness in a most cultured manner. The main goal of the Xinjiang Civilization journal was teaching Uyghurs to understand themselves, educate them about the Uyghur culture and history. The essays and articles in the journal were mainly focused on the thoughts behind our reality and keeping our culture alive for the next generation. 70 years old Qurban Mamut was detained by Xinjiang authorities since December 2018.
