Emily Feng — Our Hearts Burned for Home: Uyghur Militants in Syria's Civil War - With Abigail Hauslohner — at Conn Ave
Emily Feng discusses *Our Hearts Burned for Home: Uyghur Militants in Syria’s Civil War*, her investigation into why thousands of Uyghur exiles left western China and traveled to Syria to fight. In conversation with Abigail Hauslohner, Feng examines how China’s surveillance, repression, and cultural erasure helped scatter and radicalize a generation, turning displaced Uyghurs into both victims and participants in global jihad and a consequential force in Syria’s civil war.
The book traces this history from the suppression of student protests in 1990s Xinjiang to the Islamist battlefields of Idlib. Drawing on reporting and access to fighters and their families, Feng considers how the Uyghur militant movement developed far from home and how its stateless revolution continues to affect Syria’s uncertain future.
Feng is NPR’s international correspondent covering China, Taiwan, and the wider region. Her human rights reporting has received multiple honors, including two Human Rights Press awards. Hauslohner, the Financial Times’ US-Middle East Foreign Affairs Correspondent, writes about U.S. policy and relationships in the Middle East and Africa; she previously covered national security for The Washington Post and served as the Post’s Cairo bureau chief.
When: October 16, 2026
Showtime: 7:00 p.m.
Venue: Politics and Prose at 5015 Connecticut Avenue NW, 5015 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington, DC 20008
Format: In-person event with a livestream option
Conversation: Emily Feng with Abigail Hauslohner
Tickets: Free; seating is first come, first served
Accessibility: To request accommodations or ask about accessibility, email events@politics-prose.com, ideally at least one week before the event. Requests made up to the event can also be considered.
Related book: *Our Hearts Burned for Home: Uyghur Militants in Syria’s Civil War* by Emily Feng is available for preorder in paperback for $18.00. It is scheduled for publication on October 13, 2026.