The Hidden Childhood of Hasan Imam
As a young boy, Hasan Imam often found refuge in the cozy embrace of a haystack on his family’s modest farm. Nestled within a few acres of a quaint village, the farm was a tapestry of rural life. Behind their family home stood a cowshed, with a hay barn adjacent to it. Within that barn, each haystack was a mirror of its neighbor, yet in the farthest stack from the entrance, his father had cleverly concealed some bedding. This hidden nook remained a secret unless one ventured to seek it out.
The village, located in Kargilik—a rural county in Xinjiang, China—was bordered by the majestic Kunlun Mountains and the vast expanse of the Taklamakan Desert, not far from the frontiers of India and Pakistan. The family cultivated whatever crops the government mandated each year, predominantly wheat and corn. Adhering to strict regulations was a way of life. Whenever Communist Party officials visited their home, Imam instinctively knew to grab his younger brother and scurry off to their hiding place. He would lie still, focusing on slowing his breath. The slightest movement could send spiders darting from the depths of the hay.
Visits from the cadres were a common occurrence in southern Xinjiang. One of their main objectives was to uncover unregistered Uyghur children. Although the region was exempt from China’s notorious one-child policy, in 1988, the government imposed a new directive limiting urban Uyghur families to two children and rural families to three. Parents who defied this regulation faced hefty fines and could even be subjected to imprisonment or forced birth control measures.
As he matured, Imam began to grasp the reasons behind his family’s efforts to keep him hidden: he was born into a life of evasion. He and his younger brother were the youngest of five siblings, and neither had been registered with the government. Consequently, Imam never obtained a birth certificate or the crucial household registration that was essential for nearly every aspect of life in China, such as opening a bank account or obtaining a driver’s license. His unregistered status meant he was never able to enroll in an official school. Instead, he received his education at home until the age of 10, when his father made the pivotal decision to send him to an underground Islamic school, or madrasa, in town. This institution was the only place where an unregistered Uyghur child could pursue an education.
For decades, the Chinese government viewed Uyghurs as a population fraught with separatist tendencies, often treating them with suspicion. In an effort to dilute the Uyghur presence, leaders implemented policies to increase the ethnic Han population in Xinjiang through various settlement programs. Following the events of September 11 and the onset of the United States’ War on Terror, China initiated its own “global war on terror,” which led to intensified scrutiny and targeting of Uyghurs and other Muslim communities in the region. When the madrasa was ultimately shut down, Imam returned home to the farm. He dedicated himself to helping his parents during the planting season in spring and was actively involved in bundling and threshing the wheat during harvest time.
