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In the summer of 2021, Zeynure Hasan was at her home in Istanbul when she received a long-awaited phone call from her husband. It had been four painful days since their last communication, when he was getting ready to take a flight to Morocco. The silence had been difficult.

But the update her husband Idris shared was even worse. He told her that upon arrival in Morocco, he had been taken into custody and imprisoned. Authorities informed him he would be deported to China. "Contact anyone who can rescue me," he pleaded, before the line went silent.

Existence as Ethnic Minority in Exile

The wife, in her early thirties, and Idris, 37, are members of the mostly Muslim ethnic group, which constitutes about 50% of the population in China's north-western Xinjiang region. Over the past decade, over a million Uyghurs are reported to have been imprisoned in alleged "re-education camps," where they faced abuse for commonplace acts like going to a place of worship or using a hijab.

The pair had been among many of Uyghurs who escaped to Turkey during the 2010s. They believed they would find refuge in their new home, but quickly realized they were mistaken.

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

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure worked as an English teacher, while Idris started as a interpreter and designer, helping to publish Uyghur media and publications. They had a family of three kids and felt free to practice as followers of Islam.

But when one of Idris's close friends, who worked in a library containing Uyghur books, was arrested in the summer of 2021, Idris became fearful. Reports indicated that Beijing was urging Turkey to deport Uyghurs. Idris felt at risk due to his prior arrest, which he suspected was connected to his work with advocates and promoting Uyghur heritage. He chose to flee to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had lapsed, had to stay behind with the children until her husband could apply for a visa for the whole family.

A Costly Error

Leaving Turkey proved to be a disastrous decision. At the airport, border control officials took Idris aside for questioning. "After he was finally allowed to board the plane, he told me how relieved he was that they had let him go, but it felt like a set-up to me," Zeynure said. Her deepest concerns were realized when he was taken off the plane and arrested by Moroccan authorities.

Over the last ten years, China has been using the international 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 allowed him take the flight aware he would be arrested upon landing in Morocco.

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

Family Interference

Shortly after learning of her husband's detention, Zeynure got an unexpected 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 return to China.

Her parents had a disturbing message. "They told me, 'We know your husband is not with you. Maybe we can assist you,'" she explained. "I knew there must be some police 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 feeding your children,' they told me. 'Avoid saying anything bad about China.'"

But with her husband's life at stake, the quiet-mannered Zeynure was not going to stay quiet. She had grown up witnessing women having their hijabs forcibly removed in public by the police and had been resolved to live in a country with religious freedom.

"Before 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 Twitter. But I had to do something to rescue my husband – I had to reveal the reality to the world. Everyone knows Uyghurs sent to China will be tortured or die. They pushed me to raise my voice."

Childhood in Xinjiang

Zeynure has different types of recollections of her childhood in Xinjiang. The first was of happy days spent in the rural areas with her elders, who were farmers. "I'd play with the animals and chickens. I don't know if I will ever have that type of chance again. The family around the home and land. It was too beautiful, like a scene from a book."

The second was as a religious minority in Xinjiang, of school holidays cut short by mandatory teachings of "communist songs" and being banned from attending the religious site or practicing Ramadan.

China claims it is addressing extremism through 'managing illegal religious activities' and 'vocational education centers', but other nations, including the US, say its actions constitute ethnic cleansing. Zeynure says she never felt free to follow her religious beliefs in Xinjiang. "Individuals who went on religious journey to Mecca in Saudi Arabia were detained and transferred to prison and told they must have some problem in their brain.

"They wanted Uyghur people to forget their faith and culture. 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 returning home from university in Eastern China to a increasing crackdown on beliefs in 2011. It was then that she was introduced to Idris by one of her school friends. "She knew we both had made the decision to go abroad and told us perhaps we could get together and go as a group."

Zeynure says she was immediately comforted by Idris. "I realized he was very honest and shy, and couldn't be dishonest or do anything wrong. There were some Uyghur boys at university who wanted to marry me, but Idris was unique."

A New Life in Turkey

Within two months they were wed and prepared to leave for a new life in Turkey. They knew it was an Islamic country with many believers and Uyghurs already living there, with a similar language and shared background. "It was like Uyghurs' alternative homeland," says Zeynure. As a educator and designer, they could also help the community in exile. "There are many children now in China growing up without Uyghur traditions or dialect so we think it's our duty to not let it disappear," she says.

But their relief at locating a secure location abroad was short-lived. Beijing has become a global leader in pursuing dissidents abroad through the use of electronic surveillance, threats and violence. But what Idris was faced was a more recent method of repression: using China's increasing economic leverage to force other countries to yield to its will, including detaining and extraditing Uyghurs it wants to silence.

Fighting for Release

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 extradition to China. She immediately reached out to as many Uyghur support groups as she could find advertised on the internet in the EU and the US and begged for help. She was fearless despite China having already shown a willingness to go after the relatives of other individuals.

Zeynure started demonstrating with her children at the Moroccan embassy in Istanbul, and sharing information on online platforms. To her amazement, copycat protests soon occurred in Morocco calling for Idris's release. Moroccan officials were forced to put out a statement saying his deportation was a matter for the courts to determine.

In the start of 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 huge political influence from Beijing, which made {little sense|