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In July 2021, Zeynure Hasan was at her home in Istanbul when she received a desperately anticipated phone call from her husband. It had been four stressful days since their last contact, when he was getting ready to take a flight to Morocco. The silence had been unbearable.

But the update her husband Idris shared was even worse. He explained that upon arrival in Morocco, he had been detained and imprisoned. Authorities informed him he would be deported to China. "Call everyone who can rescue me," he urged, before the line went dead.

Life as Ethnic Minority in Exile

Zeynure, in her early thirties, and Idris, in his late thirties, are members of the Uyghur ethnic group, which makes up about 50% of the population in China's north-western Xinjiang region. Over the last ten years, over a million Uyghurs are believed to have been detained in alleged "re-education camps," where they faced torture for commonplace actions like going to a mosque or using a hijab.

The couple had been among many of Uyghurs who escaped to Turkey during the previous decade. They thought they would find security in their new home, but soon found they were wrong.

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

After settling in Istanbul, Zeynure became an English teacher, while Idris started as a interpreter and designer, assisting to produce Uyghur media and printed works. They had three children and enjoyed able to practice as Muslims.

But when one of Idris's close friends, who was employed in a book repository containing Uyghur books, was arrested in the summer of 2021, Idris panicked. Reports indicated that Beijing was urging Turkey to deport Uyghurs. Idris felt at risk due to his prior arrest, which he suspected was linked to his work with advocates and promoting Uyghur culture. He decided to escape to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had lapsed, had to stay behind with the children until her husband could apply for a travel document for the whole family.

A Costly Error

Departing Turkey turned out to be a disastrous decision. At the Istanbul airport, border control officials pulled him aside for interrogation. "After he was eventually allowed to get on the plane, he told me how happy 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 removed from the plane and arrested by border officials.

Over the last ten years, China has been using the global police agency Interpol to pursue political refugees and had asked for Idris to be placed on the agency's high-priority "red notice list." Zeynure claims Turkish officials let him take the flight aware he would be arrested upon arrival in Morocco.

What happened next would convince her to do what many Uyghurs fear most: defy China, despite the consequences.

Family Pressure

Shortly after learning of her husband's arrest, Zeynure received an surprising phone call from her family in Xinjiang. She had been cut off from her relatives since they visited her in Turkey in 2016 and were imprisoned for several months upon their going back to China.

Her parents had a chilling warning. "They told me, 'We know your husband is not with you. Maybe we can help you,'" Zeynure explained. "I realized 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 caring for your children,' they told me. 'Don't say anything bad about China.'"

But with her husband's safety at stake, the quiet-mannered Zeynure was not going to stay quiet. She had been raised witnessing women having their hijabs ripped off 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 save my husband – I had to tell the truth to the international community. Everyone knows Uyghurs sent to China will be tortured or killed. They forced me to speak out."

Growing Up in Xinjiang

Zeynure has different types of recollections of her early years in Xinjiang. The first was of blissful days spent in the countryside 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 type of chance again. The relatives around the house and farm. It was too beautiful, like a picture from a story."

The second was as a Muslim Uyghur in Xinjiang, of vacations cut short by mandatory teachings of "political anthems" and being banned from attending the mosque or practicing Ramadan.

China says it is addressing radicalism through 'controlling illegal religious activities' and 'vocational education facilities', but other nations, including the US, say its actions amount to genocide. Zeynure says she never felt free to practice her religious beliefs in Xinjiang. "Individuals who went on pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia were detained and transferred to prison and told they must have some problem in their brain.

"They aimed for Uyghur people to abandon their religion and heritage. They said 'you should trust in us, we gave you employment and this good living here'," says Zeynure.

She eventually decided to depart China after returning home from university in another part of China to a growing repression on beliefs in 2011. It was then that she was connected to Idris by one of her classmates. "She was aware we both had taken the choice to go overseas and told us perhaps we could get together and go together."

Zeynure says she was right away 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 marry me, but Idris was different."

A New Life in Turkey

Within two months they were married and ready 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 language and shared ethnicity. "It felt like Uyghurs' second home," says Zeynure. As a educator and creative, they could also help the community in exile. "We have many kids now in China being raised without Uyghur traditions or language so we think it's our responsibility to not let it disappear," she says.

But their relief at locating a secure location overseas was short-lived. Beijing has become a prominent force in targeting dissidents living in exile through the use of monitoring, intimidation and violence. But what Idris was subjected to was a newer tool of repression: using China's increasing economic leverage to pressure other nations to yield to its demands, including arresting and extraditing Uyghurs it wants to silence.

Fighting for Release

After the phone call from Idris, and learning he had an Interpol alert hanging over him, Zeynure knew she only had a short window of chance to try to stop his deportation to China. She immediately contacted as many Uyghur advocacy organizations as she could find advertised on the internet in Europe and the US and pleaded for assistance. She was brave despite China having already shown a willingness to go after the relatives of other targets.

Zeynure started demonstrating with her children at the diplomatic mission in Istanbul, and sharing updates on online platforms. To her surprise, copycat protests soon occurred in Morocco demanding Idris's release. Moroccan officials were compelled to issue a statement saying his extradition was a matter for the judicial system 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 prevent a Moroccan court later deciding he should still be sent back to China. Zeynure says there was huge diplomatic pressure from Beijing, which made {little sense|