The year was 1986. A baby was crying outside a village hospital in China’s Guizhou province. She had been abandoned in a cardboard box. Abdullah Tömür, a Uyghur who was selling kebabs in the area at the time, could not bear to hear her crying and took her home. He intended to hand her over to the relevant authorities. His wife breastfed the baby and helped her regain her strength over the next few days. But those few days changed the family’s life: the couple decided to adopt her. The girl, whom they named Zöhregül, grew up alongside their two sons. This was how the story Tömür told RFA began.
Zöhregül grew up, learned tailoring, and married. Years later, the father who had taken her from the box outside the hospital and raised her would struggle to find out what had happened to his daughter.
Abdullah Tömür came to Türkiye in 2016 to visit his child, who was studying there. As repression in East Turkistan intensified, he was unable to return to Kuqa. He lost contact with his three children who remained behind. After nearly ten years without news, he posted an appeal on Facebook in March 2026, hoping to learn about his children’s situation.
Following this appeal, he spoke with a person who introduced themselves as a consulate employee. Believing it might help secure his daughter’s release, Tömür explained that Zöhregül had been adopted as a Chinese baby. According to his account, a few days later he was told that his daughter was in prison and had three years left to serve. He requested that she be released, issued a passport, and allowed to leave the country, but to no avail.
Abdullah Tömür, who once took an abandoned baby into his home, is now, forty years later, trying to free that same child from prison. The charges on which Zöhregül was convicted remain unclear. The story her father tells continues today through his efforts to reunite with his daughter.