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In the summer of 2021, Zeynure Hasan was at her residence in Istanbul when she answered a desperately anticipated phone call from her husband. It had been four stressful days since their last contact, when he was preparing to take a flight to Casablanca. The lack of communication had been difficult.

But the news her husband Idris shared was more alarming. He informed her that upon landing in Morocco, he had been arrested and jailed. Authorities informed him he would be sent back to China. "Call everyone who can assist me," he urged, before the line went silent.

Existence as Uyghurs in Exile

The wife, 31 years old, and Idris, 37, are part of the mostly Muslim community, which constitutes about 50% of the population in China's north-western Xinjiang region. Over the past decade, more than a 1,000,000 Uyghurs are reported to have been detained in alleged "vocational training camps," where they faced mistreatment for commonplace actions like attending a mosque or wearing a hijab.

The pair had joined many of Uyghurs who fled to Turkey during the previous decade. They hoped they would find refuge in their new home, but quickly discovered they were wrong.

"Authorities informed me that the Beijing officials threatened to close all its factories in the country if Morocco freed him," she said.

After settling in Istanbul, Zeynure became an English teacher, while Idris started as a translator and artist, helping to publish Uyghur media and printed works. They had a family of three kids and felt able to live as Muslims.

But when one of Idris's close friends, who worked in a library containing Uyghur books, was detained in the summer of 2021, Idris became fearful. Reports indicated that Beijing was pressuring Turkey to deport Uyghurs. Idris felt vulnerable due to his previous detention, which he suspected was linked to his work with activists and supporting Uyghur culture. He chose to escape to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had expired, had to stay behind with the children until her husband could apply for a travel document for the family.

A Terrible Error

Leaving Turkey turned out to be a terrible decision. At the airport, immigration officials pulled him aside for questioning. "After he was finally allowed to get on the plane, he told me how happy he was that they had released him, but it felt like a set-up to me," Zeynure said. Her deepest concerns were realized when he was taken off the plane and detained by Moroccan authorities.

Over the past decade, China has been utilizing the global police agency Interpol to pursue political refugees and had asked for Idris to be placed on the agency's high-priority "alert list." Zeynure says Turkish officials let him board the flight aware he would be apprehended upon arrival in Morocco.

What followed would lead her to do what many Uyghurs fear most: challenge China, regardless of the consequences.

Family Interference

Shortly after learning of her husband's detention, Zeynure received an unexpected phone call from her parents in Xinjiang. She had been separated from her relatives since they visited her in Turkey in 2016 and were imprisoned for several months upon their return to China.

Her parents had a disturbing warning. "They said, 'We know your husband is not with you. Perhaps we can help you,'" Zeynure stated. "I knew there must be some police there with them and just pretended like I didn't know anything. But they insisted and told me not to do anything to help my husband. 'Avoid doing anything except feeding your children,' they told me. 'Avoid saying anything bad about China.'"

But with her husband's life at risk, the softly spoken Zeynure was not going to remain silent. She had been raised witnessing women having their hijabs forcibly removed in public by the authorities and had been resolved to live in a country with freedom of belief.

"Prior to my husband was arrested in Morocco, I didn't do anything. I was just looking after my family; I didn't even have social media or these platforms. But I had to do something to rescue my husband – I had to tell the truth to the world. Everyone knows Uyghurs sent to China will be tortured or die. They pushed me to raise my voice."

Growing Up in Xinjiang

Zeynure has different types of memories of her early years in Xinjiang. The first was of blissful days spent in the rural areas with her grandparents, who were agricultural workers. "I used to play with the animals and chickens. I don't know if I will ever have that kind of opportunity again. The family around the home and farm. It was too beautiful, like a picture from a book."

The second was as a Muslim Uyghur in Xinjiang, of vacations cut short by mandatory teachings of "communist songs" and being prohibited from attending the mosque or observing Ramadan.

China claims it is addressing radicalism through 'managing illegal religious activities' and 'vocational education centers', but other nations, including the US, say its actions constitute genocide. Zeynure says she never felt able to follow her religious beliefs in Xinjiang. "People who went on pilgrimage to Mecca abroad were arrested and transferred to jail and told they must have some problem in their mind.

"They wanted Uyghur people to abandon their faith and culture. They said 'you should trust in us, we gave you jobs and this good living here'," says Zeynure.

She eventually decided to depart China after returning home from college in Eastern China to a growing repression on religious freedoms in 2011. It was then that she was introduced to Idris by one of her classmates. "She was aware we both had made the decision to go abroad and told us maybe we could meet and go together."

Zeynure says she was right away reassured by Idris. "I saw he was very honest and reserved, and couldn't tell lies or do anything bad. There were some Uyghur men at university who wanted to marry me, but Idris was unique."

A New Life in Turkey

Within two months they were married and prepared to move for a different existence in Turkey. They knew it was an Islamic country with many believers and Uyghurs already residing there, with a similar tongue and shared ethnicity. "It was like Uyghurs' alternative homeland," says Zeynure. As a educator and creative, they could also support the community in diaspora. "We have many children now in China growing up without Uyghur culture or language so we think it's our duty to not let it die out," she says.

But their relief at locating a place of safety abroad was short-lived. Beijing has become a global leader in pursuing dissidents abroad through the use of electronic surveillance, threats and physical assault. But what Idris was faced was a more recent method of control: using China's increasing financial influence to force other countries to bend to its demands, including arresting and extraditing Uyghurs it wants to suppress.

Fighting for Freedom

After the phone call from Idris, and discovering he had an Interpol alert hanging over him, Zeynure knew she only had a short window of chance to try to prevent his deportation to China. She right away contacted as many Uyghur advocacy organizations as she could find advertised on the internet in Europe and the US and begged for help. She was brave despite China having already demonstrated a readiness to target the relatives of other targets.

Zeynure started protesting with her children at the diplomatic mission in Istanbul, and sharing updates on online platforms. To her surprise, copycat protests soon followed in Morocco demanding Idris's release. Moroccan officials were forced to put out a announcement saying his deportation was a matter for the judicial system to determine.

In early August 2021, Interpol withdrew Idris's alert after being urged to review his case by advocacy organizations. But that did not stop a Moroccan court later deciding he should still be extradited to China. Zeynure says there was significant political influence from Beijing, which made {little sense|