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In July 2021, Zeynure Hasan was at her residence in Turkey's largest city when she received a long-awaited phone call from her husband. There had been four painful days since their last communication, when he was preparing to take a flight to Casablanca. The lack of communication had been unbearable.

But the news her husband Idris shared was more alarming. He told her that upon landing in Morocco, he had been arrested and jailed. Authorities stated he would be deported to China. "Contact everyone who can assist me," he pleaded, before the line went silent.

Life as Ethnic Minority in Turkey

The wife, 31 years old, and Idris, 37, are members of the mostly Muslim community, which makes up about half of the residents in China's western Xinjiang province. Over the last ten years, more than a 1,000,000 Uyghurs are estimated to have been imprisoned in alleged "vocational training camps," where they faced mistreatment for commonplace acts like attending a place of worship or using a headscarf.

The couple had been among thousands of Uyghurs who fled to Turkey during the previous decade. They hoped they would find safety in exile, but soon found they were wrong.

"Authorities informed me that the Chinese government threatened to close all its industrial plants in the country if Morocco released him," she explained.

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure became an English teacher, while Idris started as a translator and designer, helping to produce Uyghur news and printed works. They had a family of three kids and enjoyed free to practice as followers of Islam.

But when one of Idris's best friends, who was employed in a book repository stocking Uyghur books, was detained in the mid-year of 2021, Idris panicked. News indicated that Beijing was urging Turkey to extradite Uyghurs. Idris felt at risk due to his prior detention, which he suspected was connected to his work with advocates and promoting Uyghur heritage. He decided to escape to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had lapsed, had to stay behind with the children until her husband could request a travel document for the whole family.

A Costly Error

Departing Turkey proved to be a terrible decision. At the airport, border control officials pulled him aside for interrogation. "When he was finally allowed to board the plane, he told me how happy he was that they had let him go, but it felt like a trap to me," Zeynure said. Her deepest concerns were realized when he was removed from the plane and arrested by border officials.

Over the past decade, China has been utilizing the global police agency Interpol to pursue dissidents and had asked for Idris to be placed on the agency's high-priority "red notice list." Zeynure claims Turkish officials allowed him take the flight knowing he would be apprehended upon arrival in Morocco.

What happened next would lead her to do what many Uyghurs fear most: challenge China, regardless of the risks.

Parental Interference

Shortly after learning of her husband's detention, Zeynure received an surprising phone call from her parents in Xinjiang. She had been separated from her family since they came to see her in Turkey in 2016 and were imprisoned for several months upon their going back to China.

Her parents had a disturbing warning. "They said, 'We know your husband is not with you. Perhaps we can assist you,'" Zeynure explained. "I knew there must be some authorities there with them and just pretended like I didn't know anything. But they persisted and told me not to do anything to help my husband. 'Avoid doing anything except caring for your children,' they told me. 'Don't say anything negative about China.'"

But with her husband's life at stake, the quiet-mannered Zeynure was not going to stay quiet. She had been raised witnessing women having their head coverings forcibly removed in open by the authorities and had been resolved to live in a country with religious freedom.

"Prior to my husband was arrested in Morocco, I didn't do anything. I was just caring for my family; I didn't even have Facebook or these platforms. But I had to do something to save my husband – I had to reveal the reality to the international community. Everyone knows Uyghurs sent to China will be abused or killed. They pushed me to raise my voice."

Growing Up in Xinjiang

Zeynure has different types of recollections of her childhood in Xinjiang. The first was of blissful days spent in the rural areas with her elders, who were agricultural workers. "I'd play with the animals and chickens. I don't know if I will ever have that kind of chance again. The family around the home and farm. It was too beautiful, like a picture from a story."

The second was as a Muslim Uyghur in Xinjiang, of school holidays cut short by forced teachings of "political anthems" and being banned from attending the religious site or practicing Ramadan.

China says it is addressing extremism through 'managing illegal religious activities' and 'training facilities', but other countries, including the US, say its actions constitute ethnic cleansing. Zeynure says she never felt able to practice her religious beliefs in Xinjiang. "Individuals who went on religious journey to Mecca in Saudi Arabia were arrested and transferred to prison and told they must have some issue in their mind.

"They aimed for Uyghur people to forget their faith and heritage. They said 'you should believe in us, we provided you employment and this good living here'," says Zeynure.

She eventually decided to leave China after coming back home from university in Eastern China to a increasing repression on beliefs in 2011. It was then that she was connected to Idris by one of her school friends. "She knew we both had made the decision to go overseas and told us maybe we could get together and go together."

Zeynure says she was immediately comforted by Idris. "I realized he was very honest and reserved, and couldn't tell lies or do anything wrong. There were some Uyghur men at university who wanted to wed me, but Idris was unique."

A New Life in Turkey

Within 60 days they were married and prepared to move for a new life in Turkey. They knew it was an Islamic country with many believers and Uyghurs already residing there, with a comparable tongue and shared background. "It was like Uyghurs' alternative homeland," says Zeynure. As a educator and creative, they could also support the community in exile. "There are many kids now in China being raised without Uyghur culture or language so we think it's our duty to not let it die out," she says.

But their sense of safety at locating a place of safety abroad was temporary. Beijing has become a global leader in targeting critics abroad through the use of electronic surveillance, intimidation and violence. But what Idris was subjected to was a newer method of control: using China's growing economic leverage to pressure other countries to bend to its demands, including detaining and deporting Uyghurs it wants to silence.

Fighting for Release

After the phone call from Idris, and learning he had an Interpol alert against him, Zeynure knew she only had a limited time of chance to try to stop his extradition to China. She right away contacted as many Uyghur support groups as she could find advertised on the internet in the EU and the US and pleaded for assistance. She was brave despite China having already demonstrated a readiness to go after the relatives of other targets.

Zeynure started demonstrating with her children at the Moroccan embassy in Istanbul, and sharing updates on social media. To her surprise, similar protests soon followed in Morocco demanding Idris's release. Moroccan officials were forced to put out a announcement saying his deportation was a issue for the judicial system to determine.

In the start of August 2021, Interpol cancelled Idris's alert after being pressed to reexamine his case by human rights groups. But that did not stop a Moroccan court later deciding he should still be sent back to China. Zeynure says there was significant diplomatic pressure from Beijing, which made {little sense|