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Patrick Wack

During a summer graduation ceremony at a school in Istanbul, a Uyghur student helps hoist a flag emblazoned with a white star and crescent against a sky-blue background, which represents what the children know as East Turkestan. East Turkestan is the Xinjiang region of China as well as homeland to the Uyghur people. Flying the flag in Xinjiang is strictly forbidden.

A Uyghur student poses wrapped with the sky-blue and white flag that represents the Uyghur homeland.

Uyghur children take part in boxing training at the Palwan Youth Empowerment Center in Istanbul. The community-based center combines academic programs with team building, sports, and art classes for youth from the local Uyghur diaspora.

Students gather at a schoolyard in Istanbul during summer graduation day.

Mahmoud Mohammed, a Uyghur religious scholar and imam, leads worship services at a cultural center in the Istanbul neighborhood of Sefaköy, which serves as a mosque for the local Uyghur community.

Rukiya Ablimit, 21, teaches at a school in Istanbul focused on preserving Uyghur tradition and culture.

Uyghur girls, who participate in a youth empowerment program, gather at a rooftop in the affluent Sefaköy neighborhood in Istanbul for an evening of camaraderie and food. The community-based program combines academic teaching with team building, sports, and art classes.

Men and boys attend a more conservative Uyghur wedding in the Avcilar district of Istanbul where males and females celebrate separately.

Shoppers walk through the sprawling street market in Zeytinburnu, a working-class neighborhood on the European side of Istanbul, home to the largest Uyghur exile community in Turkey.

Uyghurs who have fled persecution in China are preserving their culture in exile. This store in Istanbul manufactures, imports, and sells a diverse array of Uyghur cultural items.