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In July 2021, Zeynure Hasan was at her home in Istanbul when she answered a long-awaited phone call from her husband. It had been four stressful days since their last contact, when he was getting ready to board a flight to Casablanca. The lack of communication had been torturous.

But the update her husband Idris revealed was more alarming. He explained that upon landing in Morocco, he had been taken into custody and imprisoned. Authorities informed him he would be extradited to China. "Contact anyone who can rescue me," he said, before the line went dead.

Life as Uyghurs in Exile

The wife, in her early thirties, and Idris, in his late thirties, are part of the mostly Muslim ethnic group, which makes up about half of the residents in China's north-western Xinjiang region. Over the past decade, more than a million Uyghurs are estimated to have been imprisoned in alleged "re-education camps," where they faced torture for commonplace actions like going to a mosque or wearing a hijab.

The couple had been among thousands of Uyghurs who fled to Turkey during the previous decade. They thought they would find security in exile, but soon realized they were mistaken.

"I was told that the Chinese government warned to close all its factories in the country if Morocco freed him," she explained.

After settling in Istanbul, Zeynure worked as an language instructor, while Idris began as a translator and artist, assisting to publish Uyghur media and printed works. They had three children and enjoyed able 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 arrested in the summer of 2021, Idris panicked. Reports indicated that Beijing was pressuring Turkey to deport Uyghurs. Idris felt at risk due to his prior detention, which he believed was linked to his work with advocates and supporting Uyghur culture. He decided to flee to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had expired, had to remain with the children until her husband could request a visa for the family.

A Terrible Error

Departing Turkey turned out to be a disastrous mistake. At the airport, immigration officials took Idris aside for questioning. "After he was finally permitted to board the plane, he told me how relieved he was that they had released him, but it felt like a trap to me," she recalled. Her deepest concerns were realized when he was taken off the plane and detained by Moroccan authorities.

Over the past decade, China has been using the international police agency Interpol to target dissidents and had asked for Idris to be added on the agency's high-priority "red notice list." Zeynure says Turkish officials allowed him take the flight knowing he would be arrested upon arrival in Morocco.

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

Parental Pressure

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 relatives since they came to see her in Turkey in 2016 and were imprisoned for a few months upon their going back to China.

Her parents had a chilling warning. "They told me, 'We know your husband is not with you. Perhaps we can help you,'" Zeynure stated. "I knew there must be some authorities 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 caring for your children,' they told me. 'Don't say anything negative about China.'"

But with her husband's life at risk, the quiet-mannered Zeynure was not going to remain silent. She had grown up witnessing women having their hijabs forcibly removed in open by the authorities and had been determined 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 caring for 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 reveal the truth to the international community. Everyone knows Uyghurs sent to China will be abused or die. They forced me to speak out."

Childhood in Xinjiang

Zeynure has different types of memories of her childhood in Xinjiang. The first was of happy days spent in the countryside with her grandparents, who were farmers. "I used to play with the animals and chickens. I don't know if I will ever have that kind of opportunity again. The relatives around the house and land. It was too wonderful, like a picture from a book."

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

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

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

She finally decided to depart China after returning home from college in another part of 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 was aware we both had made the choice to go overseas and told us maybe we could get together and go together."

Zeynure says she was right away reassured by Idris. "I realized he was very truthful and shy, and couldn't tell lies or do anything bad. There were some Uyghur men at university who wanted to wed me, but Idris was different."

Fresh Start in Turkey

Within two months they were married and ready to move for a new life in Turkey. They knew it was an Muslim-majority country with many Muslims and Uyghurs already residing there, with a comparable tongue and common background. "It was like Uyghurs' alternative homeland," says Zeynure. As a teacher and designer, they could also help the Uyghur population in diaspora. "We have many children now in China growing up without Uyghur culture or language so we think it's our responsibility to not let it disappear," she says.

But their relief at finding a secure location overseas was temporary. Beijing has become a global leader in targeting dissidents living in exile through the use of monitoring, intimidation and violence. But what Idris was faced was a newer tool of control: using China's growing financial influence to force other countries to bend to its will, including detaining and extraditing Uyghurs it wants to suppress.

Fighting for Freedom

After the call from Idris, and discovering he had an Interpol red notice hanging over him, Zeynure knew she only had a limited time of opportunity to try to stop his deportation to China. She immediately reached out to as many Uyghur advocacy organizations as she could find advertised on the internet in the EU and the US and pleaded for help. She was fearless despite China having already shown a willingness to target the relatives of other individuals.

Zeynure started protesting with her children at the diplomatic mission in Istanbul, and posting information on online platforms. To her surprise, similar protests soon occurred in Morocco calling for Idris's freedom. Moroccan officials were compelled to issue a statement saying his deportation was a matter for the courts 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 prevent a Moroccan court later deciding he should still be sent back to China. Zeynure says there was huge political influence from Beijing, which made {little sense|