Investigative Studies on Women's lives and their Living Environments in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in China

2003年至2005年，我们走访了乌鲁木齐、喀什、阿图什、哈密、吐鲁番和和田，对维吾尔族妇女及其生活环境的实际情况进行了调查。在调查中，我们主要进行了口头访谈和家访观察，并进行了摄影记录；在调查中，我们根据家庭、性别、衣着、饮食文化和生活环境等特长进行了分组。为了了解这一地区的情况，我们邀请了中学和新疆大学的老师、博物馆的讲师和维吾尔族留学生的合作。我们报告了我们调查的以下内容，形成了我们的观点：1)儿童教育，2)斋月等日常生活和宗教生活，3)服饰作为穆斯林的表现，4)传统习俗及其在家庭关系和生活中的变化。学校教育的主要问题是高中入学率下降，不能上学的学生增加。特别是在占全区80%的贫困农户中，父母对子女的期望不高，阻碍了子女上学，养育子女的主体是母亲。母亲养育孩子的方式是从亲戚那里得到足够的支持，尤其是自己的母亲。维吾尔族人保持着家务劳动的性别分工文化。特别是，穆斯林维护着强大的父权制度，因此他们对女儿的教育期望低于对儿子的期望。

We visited Urumchi, Kashgar, Atush, Hami, Turfan and Hotan, from 2003 to 2005 and aimed to conduct investigations on actual conditions of Uygur women and their living environments. In our investigation, we principally conducted oral interviews and observation in house visits, and made photographic records.In conducting investigations, we were divided into groups according to each one's specialty, such as families, genders, cloth-ing, dietary culture, and living environments. In order to comprehend the situation of the region, we invited the cooperation of teachers of secondary school and Xinjian University, instructors of museums and foreign students of Uygur people.We report about the following contents of our investigation about which we have formed a viewpoint.1)Children's education 2)Ordinary lives and Religious lives like Ramadan 3)Expression of costumes as Muslim 4)Traditional customs and their changes in Family relations and lives.Main problems of school-education are that the high school attendance rate has declined and that students who are not able to go to school have been increased. In particular, among the poor farmers' households that account for 80% of the region, parents do not have higher expectations for their children, thus they prevent their children from going to school.Their main agent of child-rearing is the mother. Mothers raise children by receiving sufficient support from relatives, especially their own mothers.Uygur people maintain the culture of gender division of domestic labor. Particularly Muslims maintain a strong patriarchal system so that their educational expectations for daughters are lower compared to sons.