The Uyghurs (Uyghur: ئۇيغۇر‎, ULY: Uyghur; [ʔʊjˈʁʊː]; simplified Chinese: 维吾尔; traditional Chinese: 維吾爾; pinyin: Wéiwú'ěr) are a Turkic ethnic group living in Eastern and Central Asia. Today, Uyghurs live primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China. An estimated 80% of Xinjiang's Uyghurs live in the southwestern portion of the region, the Tarim Basin.

The largest community of Uyghurs outside Xinjiang in China is in Taoyuan County, in south-central Hunan province. Outside of China, significant diasporic communities of Uyghurs exist in the Central Asian countries of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. Smaller communities are found in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Turkey.

Uyghur is often pronounced /ˈwiːɡər/ by English speakers, though the most acceptable English pronunciation is ooy-goor. Several alternate romanizations also appear: Uighur, Uygur and Uigur. The Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region provincial government recommends that the generic ethnonym [ʔʊjˈʁʊː], adopted in the early 20th century for this Turkic people, be transcribed as "Uyghur".

Rebiya Kadeer (Uyghur: رابىيه قادىر‎; Chinese: 热比娅·卡德尔; born 15 July 1948) is a Uyghur human rights activist with origins in Xinjiang, China. Kadeer is the symbolic leader of Uighur self-determination movement in her capacity as President of the World Uyghur Congress, a group that advocates for greater autonomy for Uyghurs in China and fights against what they consider to be oppressive policies of the Chinese government. She lives in the United States.

Rebiya Kadeer is a prominent Uyghur businesswoman and political activist from the northwest region of Xinjiang, an autonomus region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). She was born into poverty in the city of Altay, then she married in 1965 and moved to the city of Aksu.

Kadeer entered her first marriage as a dedicated housewife, but when her household struggled financially, she began independently making and selling clothes and other small goods as a means of support.

During the Chinese cultural revolution she was suppressed for her efforts, as the Chinese government attempted to break up her family. She claims that the Chinese government told her ex-husband-to divorce her. She recounts "They put pressure on him to divorce me because they accused me of secretly doing business. They said that it was wrong for me to do secret business."