According to media reports, Xinjiang authorities have recently banned dozens of names with religious connotations common to Muslims around the world, such as Jihad, Imam, Mecca, Saddam and Hajj on the basis that they could “exaggerate religious fervor.”
Children with banned names will not be able to obtain a “hukou,” or household registration, essential for accessing public school and other social services.
Xinjiang province sits on the extreme northwest of China, bordering Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tibet.
Around half of its 20 million-strong inhabitants are Uighurs, a Muslim ethnic minority group hailing from Central Asia, who have distinct cultural differences from the Han Chinese who make up the majority of China's population.
The Chinese government has been increasingly tightening religious restrictions in the area as part of its war on what it claims to be religious extremism.
Authorities regularly conduct raids on Uighur households, and introduced a ban on wearing face veils and growing long beards only weeks before the new naming regulations, according to The Telegraph.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the latest “absurd” prohibition was part of a slew of new regulations “restricting religious freedom in the name of countering ‘extremism’”.
