Some Uyghur activists have referred to victims of the Persecution of Uyghurs in China that died, martyrs.

The term is commonly and wrongfully used as a posthumous title for those who are considered to have accepted or even consciously sought out their own death in order to bear witness to their beliefs. (Emphasis mine)

Follow the citation to this paper by Olmo Gölz, “Martyrdom and the Struggle for Power: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Martyrdom in the Modern Middle East. [Editorial]” Behemoth 12, no. 1 (2019): 2–13.

First paragraph:

Martyrdom is for losers. Yet, it is a powerful claim on strength at the same time. For the individual who seeks martyrdom, it is the weapon of last resort and a means of self-defence. For the surviving community that remembers someone as a martyr, it indicates the unjust sufering of an innocent. On one hand, the recourse to martyrdom discourses exposes the self-perceived weakness of those who make use of it. On the other, dying on behalf of a higher cause is a strong signal and a rallying cry for the bereaved.

Behemoth is a relatively new English and German language journal that purports to use history and anthropology to "address the state of a society that has to learn that the power of the state is no longer sufficient to guarantee long-term stability" when liberal rule of law and free market economics are failing. https://www.hsozkult.de/index.php/journals/id/z6-61343

Seems like chauvinistic crypto-Zionist shit idk

Arabic speaker here. This is weird because in Arabic there are two words that can both be spelled as "shahid" in English but they are pronounced differently and spelled differently in Arabic. Witness is generally spelled as شاهد which is pronounced as Shaaa-Hed. شاهد can litetally mean "to see or to watch something". Martyr is شهيد which is pronounced like Shahiiiid.

But it's complicated too because the plural "shohadaa" is the same for both these words so it can mean "witnesses" or "martyrs".

The article is using two words as if they are one word used differently. They are two words that have the same plural form.