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Sarah Omari

How Hyper-consumerism in the MENA Region is affecting the exploitation of Uyghur in China?

Fast fashion is quite popular in the MENA Region, approximately 484,175 million people live in MENA, which is an economic accelerator. China is currently the being the single biggest contributor to global growth (3). The current global pandemic shifted consumer concerns to food, personal care items, and electronics (3), yet, consumer consumption of a variety of brands implicated in the forced labor of ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur region still remains to be an issue.


About 1 in 5 cotton garments sold around the world, contains cotton supplied from Xinjang (1). Companies such as Fila, Abercrombie and Fitch, H & M, are a few of the long list of suppliers that have been complicit in Uyghur forced labour. Some brands such as Nike, have released statements upon the matter, while others have yet to do so (1).

After Emmanuel Macron and his wife publicly disrespected and spewed Islamophobic remarks, the MENA region had been quick to boycott French products, resulting in an estimate of over a Billion dollars lost. The MENA region is capable of having a huge impact on putting pressure on the Chinese economy to reduce the exploitation of Uyghurs in China.


The issue here is that despite many people having being made aware about what is going on in the Xingjiang region of China through social media, not enough measures have been taken forward to prevent it from carrying on. This is due to several reasons, the first being that many people are still unaware about the issue. Millions of Uyghurs are being held in camps in China to be ‘re-educated’. The Chinese government is viewing Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities as potential separatists and terrorists (2).


If this modern-day cultural and humanitarian genocide reminds you of something, it must be Mao Zedong’s Socialist cultural revolution. What does the modern re-education consist camps of? Political indoctrination, forced sterilisation, torture, forced medication, ethnic cleansing. This has been going on from between 2015-2018 (2).


The second issue is that despite people having been made aware of the cultural and humanitarian genocide on social media, they are unaware of how to take sufficient action.

This solution is simple; Boycotting, Boycotting brands that are still implicated in the exploitation of Uyghurs. There are many alternatives to fast fashion, such as supporting small ethically sourced businesses, and thrifting, which is also quite beneficial as it saves money.


Overall, the MENA region is capable of putting pressure on the Chinese government, the same way it did with the French government. The little actions that can be taken by anyone and everyone to reduce hyper-consumerism, increase sustainability, and prevent the exploitation of Uyghurs.


Sources:

1. “PRESS RELEASE: 180+ Orgs Demand Apparel Brands End Complicity in Uyghur Forced Labour.” Uyghur Human Rights Project, uhrp.org/press-release/press-release-180-orgs-demand-apparel-brands-end-complicity-uyghur-forced-labour.html.

2. Why More than a Million Uighurs Are Being Held ... - YouTube. www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKpyaDZkNfU.

3. “Consumer Economies in MENA: Customised, Convenient and Creative MENA” Vol. 3-2020. file:///C:/Users/Sarah%20Omari/Downloads/hsbc-mena-sector-series-consumer-economies.pdf

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