Zubayra Shamseden is Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director of the Network for Uyghur Rights (NUR). She has been campaigning for the human rights and political freedom of the Uyghur people since the late 1980s. Prior to joining NUR, she served as Chinese Outreach Coordinator at the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) from 2012 to 2026. She was elected as Vice President of the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) for the 2021–2024 term and previously chaired its Human Rights Committee. Before joining UHRP, Shamseden was an Information Officer, Researcher and Translator (2009–2012) at the International Uyghur Human Rights and Democracy Foundation (IUHRDF). She has worked in multicultural education and community liaison for nonprofit, academic, and government organizations in Australia and the U.S. for over two decades.
Shamseden was a 2016–2018 Fellow at the Center for Women, Faith & Leadership (CWFL) of the Institute for Global Engagement (IGE). She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Library and Information Science from East China Normal University (华东师范大学) in Shanghai, a certification in Chinese from the Industrial University of Xinjiang, a diploma in Russian language and literature from the State University of Eastern Kazakhstan, and a graduate diploma in Information Studies and a Master’s degree in International Studies from the University of South Australia, where she focused on the modern history of Uyghur human rights. She is fluent in English, Uyghur, Chinese, Uzbek, and Russian, and has a working knowledge of Turkish.
