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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 take a flight to Morocco. The lack of communication had been difficult.

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

Existence as Ethnic Minority in Exile

Zeynure, 31 years old, and Idris, 37, are members of the mostly Muslim community, which constitutes about 50% of the population in China's north-western Xinjiang region. Over the last ten years, more than a 1,000,000 Uyghurs are reported to have been imprisoned in alleged "vocational training camps," where they faced abuse for commonplace acts like attending a mosque or using a hijab.

The couple had been among thousands of Uyghurs who escaped to Turkey during the 2010s. They thought they would find refuge in exile, but quickly discovered they were wrong.

"Authorities informed me that the Beijing officials threatened to shut down all its industrial plants in the nation if Morocco released him," Zeynure explained.

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure became an language instructor, while Idris started as a interpreter and designer, helping to produce Uyghur news and printed works. They had a family of three kids and felt able to practice as Muslims.

But when one of Idris's best friends, who worked in a book repository containing Uyghur books, was detained in the summer of 2021, Idris panicked. Reports indicated that Beijing was pressuring Turkey to extradite Uyghurs. Idris felt vulnerable due to his prior arrest, which he suspected was linked to his work with advocates and promoting Uyghur culture. He chose 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 family.

A Costly Error

Leaving Turkey proved to be a disastrous mistake. At the airport, immigration officials pulled him aside for interrogation. "When he was eventually permitted to get on the plane, he told me how relieved he was that they had let him go, but it felt like a trap to me," Zeynure recalled. Her deepest concerns were realized when he was taken off the plane and detained by Moroccan authorities.

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

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

Family Interference

Shortly after learning of her husband's arrest, Zeynure got an unexpected phone call from her family in Xinjiang. She had been separated from her family since they visited 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 help you,'" she stated. "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. 'Avoid saying anything bad about China.'"

But with her husband's life at stake, the quiet-mannered Zeynure was not going to remain silent. She had grown up witnessing women having their hijabs ripped off in public by the authorities and had been determined 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 these platforms. But I had to do something to rescue my husband – I had to reveal the reality to the world. Everyone knows Uyghurs deported to China will be tortured or die. They pushed me to raise my voice."

Childhood in Xinjiang

Zeynure has different types of memories 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 kind of opportunity again. The relatives around the house and farm. It was too beautiful, like a picture from a story."

The second was as a religious minority in Xinjiang, of vacations cut short by forced teachings of "communist songs" and being prohibited from going to the religious site or observing Ramadan.

China claims it is tackling extremism through 'controlling illegal religious activities' and 'training centers', but other countries, including the US, say its actions amount to ethnic cleansing. Zeynure says she never felt able to practice her faith in Xinjiang. "Individuals who went on religious journey to Mecca abroad were detained and transferred to jail and told they must have some issue in their mind.

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

She finally decided to depart China after coming back 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 classmates. "She knew we both had made the choice to go overseas and told us maybe we could meet and go together."

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

Fresh Start in Turkey

Within 60 days they were wed and prepared to move for a new life in Turkey. They knew it was an Muslim-majority 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 educator and designer, they could also help the Uyghur population in diaspora. "We have many children now in China being raised without Uyghur traditions or dialect so we think it's our duty to not let it die out," she says.

But their relief at locating a secure location overseas was temporary. Beijing has become a global leader in targeting critics living in exile through the use of monitoring, intimidation and physical assault. But what Idris was subjected to was a more recent tool of control: using China's growing financial influence to force other nations to yield to its will, including arresting and deporting Uyghurs it wants to suppress.

Fighting for Freedom

After the 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 prevent his extradition 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 help. She was brave despite China having already shown a willingness to target the family members of other targets.

Zeynure started demonstrating with her children at the Moroccan embassy in Istanbul, and sharing updates on social media. To her amazement, copycat protests soon occurred in Morocco demanding Idris's freedom. Moroccan officials were forced to put out a announcement saying his extradition was a matter for the judicial system to determine.

In early August 2021, Interpol cancelled Idris's red notice 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 significant political influence from Beijing, which made {little sense|