Nursiman wears a hijab as she speaks with me via videoconference from Istanbul, where she is pursuing an MBA. "My parents told me to 'dream big,'" she says in English.
Nursiman has not heard from her family in the Xinjiang province of China since June 2017. Other family and friends in Xinjiang have asked her not to contact them, fearing government reprisal.
This summer, she learned that her parents and two brothers were charged by Chinese officials with possible involvement in international terrorism. Their collective sentences exceed a half a century. What is their alleged crime? Ensuring that their two daughters - Nursiman and her sister, who earned a doctorate and lives in the United States - received an education.
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