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In July 2021, Zeynure Hasan was at her home in Turkey's largest city when she answered a desperately anticipated phone call from her husband. It had been four agonizing days since their last communication, when he was preparing to board a flight to Casablanca. The silence had been torturous.

But the news her husband Idris delivered was more alarming. He told her that upon landing in Morocco, he had been detained and imprisoned. Authorities told him he would be sent back to China. "Reach out to everyone who can help me," he urged, before the line went silent.

Life as Ethnic Minority in Exile

The wife, 31 years old, and Idris, in his late thirties, are members of the mostly Muslim ethnic group, which constitutes about 50% of the residents in China's north-western Xinjiang province. Over the last ten years, more than a million Uyghurs are reported to have been imprisoned in so-called "re-education camps," where they faced mistreatment for ordinary acts like going to a place of worship or wearing a hijab.

The couple had joined many of Uyghurs who escaped to Turkey during the previous decade. They believed they would find safety in their new home, but soon discovered they were mistaken.

"Authorities informed me that the Chinese government warned to shut down all its industrial plants in the nation if Morocco released him," Zeynure stated.

After settling in Istanbul, Zeynure worked as an English teacher, while Idris began as a interpreter and artist, helping to publish Uyghur news and publications. They had three children and felt free to practice as followers of Islam.

But when one of Idris's close friends, who was employed in a book repository stocking Uyghur books, was detained in the mid-year of 2021, Idris became fearful. News indicated that Beijing was urging Turkey to deport Uyghurs. Idris felt vulnerable due to his previous detention, which he believed was linked to his work with advocates and promoting Uyghur heritage. He chose to escape to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had expired, had to remain with the children until her husband could request a visa for the whole family.

A Costly Error

Leaving Turkey proved to be a disastrous decision. At the airport, immigration officials took Idris aside for interrogation. "When he was finally permitted to get on the plane, he told me how relieved he was that they had released him, but it felt like a trap to me," she said. Her worst fears were realized when he was taken off the plane and arrested by Moroccan authorities.

Over the last ten years, China has been utilizing the global police agency Interpol to pursue political refugees and had requested for Idris to be placed on the agency's high-priority "alert list." Zeynure claims Turkish officials allowed him take the flight aware he would be apprehended upon landing in Morocco.

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

Parental Interference

Shortly after learning of her husband's detention, Zeynure got an unexpected phone call from her parents 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. Perhaps we can help you,'" Zeynure stated. "I knew there must be some police there with them and just acted 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. '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 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 deported to China will be abused or killed. 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'd play with the sheep and chickens. I don't know if I will ever have that type of chance 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 vacations interrupted by forced teachings of "communist songs" and being prohibited from going to the mosque or practicing Ramadan.

China claims it is tackling extremism through 'controlling unauthorized religious activities' and 'vocational education facilities', but other nations, including the US, say its actions constitute ethnic cleansing. Zeynure says she never felt free to practice her faith in Xinjiang. "Individuals who went on pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia were arrested and sent to jail and told they must have some problem in their mind.

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

She finally decided to depart China after returning home from university in another part of China to a growing 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 choice to go overseas and told us maybe we could get together and go as a group."

Zeynure says she was immediately reassured by Idris. "I saw 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 marry me, but Idris was unique."

Fresh Start in Turkey

Within 60 days they were wed and prepared to move for a different existence in Turkey. They knew it was an Islamic country with many Muslims and Uyghurs already residing there, with a comparable tongue and common ethnicity. "It felt like Uyghurs' second home," says Zeynure. As a teacher and creative, they could also support the community in exile. "There are many children now in China growing up without Uyghur traditions or language so we think it's our duty to not let it disappear," she says.

But their sense of safety at finding a place of safety abroad was temporary. Beijing has become a prominent force in pursuing critics living in exile through the use of electronic surveillance, intimidation and physical assault. But what Idris was faced was a more recent method of control: using China's increasing financial influence to pressure other countries to yield to its will, including detaining and extraditing Uyghurs it wants to silence.

Campaigning for Freedom

After the call from Idris, and discovering he had an Interpol red notice against him, Zeynure knew she only had a short window of chance to try to prevent his deportation to China. She immediately reached out to as many Uyghur advocacy organizations as she could find advertised on the internet in Europe and the US and begged for help. She was fearless 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 information on online platforms. To her surprise, similar protests soon followed in Morocco calling for Idris's freedom. Moroccan officials were forced to put out a statement saying his extradition was a issue for the judicial system to decide.

In the start of August 2021, Interpol cancelled Idris's alert after being pressed to reexamine his case by advocacy organizations. But that did not prevent a Moroccan court later ruling he should still be sent back to China. Zeynure says there was significant political influence from Beijing, which made {little sense|