An Uighur father's brave fight

Jewher Ilham, daughter of Ilham Tohti, a prominent Uighur academic who was recently arrested by China, testifies at the Congressional-Executive Commission on China on Capitol Hill in Washington on April 8, 2014. Ilham told US lawmakers that her father's arrest sent a message China will not tolerate even peaceful expression of grievances by the minority group. AFP PHOTO / Saul LOEB

My father, Ilham Tohti, an outspoken critic of China's policies on our people, has been jailed. I must tell his story.

THE last time I saw my father was on Feb 2, 2013. We were at the international airport in Beijing, about to board a flight to America for him to spend a year as a visiting scholar at Indiana University.