Tsewang Paljor for Taiwan Times.
Tibetan women have been at the forefront of the Tibetan people’s non-violent struggle for independence.
Women originally planned and led the major uprising against the Chinese occupation in 1959, and according to the Tibetan Government in Exile, a nun from Nyemo led a full-scale uprising in 1969 which spread to 18 counties and threatened to take over Lhasa.
Then, in 1993, Asia Watch reported a sharp increase in the number of political arrests of Tibetan nuns.
Reasons for Arrests
Most Tibetans are arrested or detained for spreading “counter-revolutionary” material, which is loosely interpreted as anything that threatens the ‘unity’ of China.
Actions such as “printing leaflets, forming subversive organizations, spying or passing information to enemies, criticizing the Party while speaking to foreigners, encouraging reactionary singing, hoisting Tibetan flags, and demonstrating” are offenses that provoke arrest.
Participation in protests nearly always leads to immediate arrests of demonstrators.
During one peaceful demonstration, a Tibetan woman, Ngawang Kyizom shouted such chants as ‘Long Live the Dalai Lama’ and ‘Free Tibet.’ Her chants lasted only 90 seconds and were fiercely suppressed when the police arrived.
For her ‘outburst’ she was physically abused and jailed for three years without trial.
These political arrests interfere with fundamental freedoms of expression and are violations of Articles 9, 10, 18, 19, 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
The PRC makes special efforts to also stifle religious expression, a violation of Article 18 of the UDHR. It persecutes Buddhist nuns who have dissenting ideologies.
Under the repressive regime, forced reeducation and indoctrination sessions target these nuns in an attempt to transform their Tibetan nationalistic or religious beliefs into communist Chinese-favoring ideologies.
Nuns who do not adapt are expelled from their nunneries and cannot rejoin other nunneries. Ironically, these and other policies spark more protests from nuns, who use songs and chants to voice their dissent.
Unfortunately, nuns are suspected more often than laywomen and therefore are more strictly surveyed.
Read the full article here.