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In the summer of 2021, Zeynure Hasan was at her home in Turkey's largest city when she got a desperately anticipated phone call from her husband. There had been four agonizing days since their last contact, when he was preparing to take a flight to Morocco. The lack of communication had been torturous.

But the information her husband Idris delivered was more alarming. He explained that upon landing in Morocco, he had been taken into custody and jailed. Authorities stated he would be extradited to China. "Contact anyone who can assist me," he said, before the line went dead.

Existence as Ethnic Minority in Turkey

Zeynure, in her early thirties, and Idris, in his late thirties, are part of the mostly Muslim community, which makes up about 50% of the residents in China's north-western Xinjiang province. Over the past decade, more than a million Uyghurs are estimated to have been detained in alleged "re-education camps," where they faced abuse for ordinary acts like going to a place of worship or using a hijab.

The couple had been among thousands of Uyghurs who escaped to Turkey during the previous decade. They thought they would find safety in exile, but quickly found they were mistaken.

"I was told that the Beijing officials warned to close all its industrial plants in the country if Morocco freed him," Zeynure stated.

After settling in Istanbul, Zeynure became an language instructor, while Idris began as a interpreter and designer, assisting to publish Uyghur media and printed works. They had a family of three kids and enjoyed free to live as followers of Islam.

But when one of Idris's close friends, who worked in a book repository stocking Uyghur books, was detained in the mid-year of 2021, Idris panicked. Reports indicated that Beijing was urging Turkey to deport Uyghurs. Idris felt at risk due to his previous detention, which he believed was linked to his work with activists and promoting Uyghur culture. He decided to escape to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had expired, had to stay behind with the children until her husband could request a travel document for the whole family.

A Costly Mistake

Leaving Turkey proved to be a disastrous mistake. At the Istanbul airport, immigration officials took Idris aside for questioning. "When he was finally allowed to board the plane, he told me how happy he was that they had released him, but it felt like a set-up to me," she said. Her deepest concerns were realized when he was removed from the plane and arrested 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 most-wanted "alert list." Zeynure claims Turkish officials let him take the flight aware he would be apprehended upon arrival in Morocco.

What followed would convince her to do what many Uyghurs dread most: defy China, despite the risks.

Parental Pressure

Soon after hearing of her husband's arrest, Zeynure got an surprising phone call from her family in Xinjiang. She had been cut off from her family 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 message. "They said, 'We know your husband is not with you. Perhaps we can assist you,'" she stated. "I realized there must be some police there with them and just acted 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. 'Avoid saying anything negative about China.'"

But with her husband's safety at stake, the softly spoken Zeynure was not going to remain silent. She had been raised witnessing women having their head coverings forcibly removed in public by the police and had been resolved to live in a country with religious freedom.

"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 Facebook or Twitter. But I had to do something to rescue my husband – I had to tell the truth to the world. Everyone knows Uyghurs deported to China will be tortured or die. They forced me to speak out."

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 agricultural workers. "I used to play with the sheep and chickens. I don't know if I will ever have that kind of chance again. The family around the house and land. It was too wonderful, like a picture from a story."

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

China claims it is tackling radicalism through 'managing unauthorized religious activities' and 'training centers', but other countries, including the US, say its actions amount to genocide. Zeynure says she never felt able to practice her faith in Xinjiang. "People who went on pilgrimage to Mecca abroad were arrested and sent to prison and told they must have some issue in their mind.

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

She eventually decided to depart China after returning home from university 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 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 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 wed me, but Idris was unique."

A New Life in Turkey

Within 60 days they were wed and ready 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 tongue and common ethnicity. "It felt like Uyghurs' second home," says Zeynure. As a teacher and designer, they could also help the Uyghur population in diaspora. "There are many kids now in China being raised without Uyghur culture or language so we think it's our responsibility to not let it disappear," she says.

But their relief at locating a place of safety overseas was short-lived. Beijing has become a prominent force in targeting dissidents living in exile through the use of electronic surveillance, threats and violence. But what Idris was subjected to was a more recent tool of control: using China's increasing economic leverage to force other countries to yield to its demands, including arresting and extraditing Uyghurs it wants to silence.

Campaigning for Release

After the call from Idris, and learning 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 support groups as she could find advertised online in the EU and the US and begged for assistance. She was fearless despite China having already shown a readiness to target the relatives of other individuals.

Zeynure started protesting with her children at the Moroccan embassy in Istanbul, and posting updates on social media. To her surprise, similar protests soon occurred in Morocco calling for Idris's freedom. Moroccan officials were compelled to issue a statement saying his extradition was a matter for the judicial system to determine.

In early August 2021, Interpol withdrew Idris's alert after being pressed to review his case by human rights groups. But that did not stop 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|