Born in Altay City, Xinjiang, China Kadeer became a millionaire in the 1980s through her real estate holdings and ownership of a multinational conglomerate.

She later remarried in 1981 to Sidik Haji Rouzi, then an associate professor, who is divorced by his ex-wife Mehmusa, a colleague of Rebiya's elder sister, for his activism.

[12] After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Kadeer engaged in cross-border trade, accumulating assets which at their peak were worth more than 200 million yuan.

Kadeer wrote that her career was significantly affected by the 1997 Jiashi earthquakes, which were "one of the worst natural disasters that had occurred in the Uyghur nation in recent memory."

[12] Although large newspapers such as the People's Daily or Xinjiang Daily downplay news about separatism or terrorism in Xinjiang, trusted government employees (as Kadeer once was) have access to neican ("internal reference reports"), which freely report on issues of concern to national security.

[18] Kadeer was arrested in August 1999 while on her way to meet a US Congressional Research Service, with the additional charge of being in contact with nearly a dozen separatists.

[12] She was tried in March 2000 in the Ürümqi Intermediate People's Court and convicted of violating article 111 of China's criminal code governing the leaking of state secrets.

She won the Rafto Prize for human rights while imprisoned[21] and she claims that she was not tortured in prison because of her newfound international reputation.

The U.S., which had pressured for her release, agreed to drop a resolution against China in the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.

[25] On 5 June 2007, at a conference on democracy and security held in Prague, Kadeer and other global political dissidents met with President George W. Bush, who praised the talent of people like her for being "the greatest resource of their nations, far more valuable than the weapons of their army or their oil under the ground.

[29] Taiwan denied a visa to Kadeer in September 2009, alleging she had links to the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, which is classed as a terrorist organization by the United Nations and USA.

[31] On 3 August, Xinhua reported that two of Rebiya Kadeer's children had written letters blaming her for orchestrating the riots.

A Human Rights Watch researcher remarked their style was "suspiciously close" to the way the Chinese authorities had described rioting in Xinjiang and the aftermath.

[47] In May 2012, while in Tokyo for a conference visit, Kadeer called on the Japanese government to raise with Beijing the subject of human rights violations in China.

[48] She also visited the controversial Yasukuni Shrine and reportedly expressed that she wanted to establish a similar place dedicated to Uyghur heroes in the future.

[49] The bestseller, which has been translated into many languages, was written by the author Alexandra Cavelius on the basis of numerous interviews with Rebiya Kadeer.