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In the summer of 2021, Zeynure Hasan was at her home in Istanbul when she got a long-awaited phone call from her husband. There had been four painful 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 news her husband Idris revealed was even worse. He explained that upon landing in Morocco, he had been arrested and imprisoned. Authorities told him he would be sent back to China. "Call everyone who can rescue me," he pleaded, before the line went silent.

Life as Ethnic Minority in Turkey

Zeynure, in her early thirties, and Idris, in his late thirties, are part of the Uyghur community, which constitutes about 50% of the population in China's western Xinjiang province. Over the last ten years, more than a 1,000,000 Uyghurs are believed to have been imprisoned in alleged "re-education camps," where they faced torture for ordinary acts like going to a place of worship or wearing a hijab.

The pair had been among many of Uyghurs who fled to Turkey during the 2010s. They believed they would find security in exile, but soon discovered they were mistaken.

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

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure became an English teacher, while Idris started as a interpreter and designer, assisting to produce Uyghur media and publications. They had a family of three kids and felt able to live as followers of Islam.

But when one of Idris's best friends, who was employed in a book repository containing Uyghur books, was detained in the summer 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 suspected was linked to his work with advocates and supporting 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 apply for a visa for the whole family.

A Terrible Mistake

Leaving Turkey turned out to be a terrible mistake. At the Istanbul airport, immigration officials pulled him aside for interrogation. "When he was eventually allowed to board the plane, he told me how relieved he was that they had let him go, but it felt like a set-up to me," she said. Her deepest concerns were confirmed when he was taken off the plane and arrested by border officials.

Over the past decade, China has been utilizing the international police agency Interpol to target dissidents and had requested for Idris to be added on the agency's most-wanted "red notice list." Zeynure says Turkish officials allowed him board the flight aware he would be apprehended upon landing in Morocco.

What followed would lead her to do what many Uyghurs dread most: challenge China, despite the consequences.

Parental Interference

Shortly after hearing of her husband's detention, Zeynure received an unexpected phone call from her family in Xinjiang. She had been cut off from her relatives since they came to see her in Turkey in 2016 and were jailed 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 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 feeding your children,' they told me. 'Don't say anything bad about China.'"

But with her husband's life at risk, the softly spoken Zeynure was not going to stay quiet. She had grown up seeing women having their head coverings ripped off in open by the police and had been resolved to live in a country with freedom of belief.

"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 save my husband – I had to tell the reality to the international community. Everyone knows Uyghurs sent to China will be abused or killed. They forced me to raise my voice."

Growing Up in Xinjiang

Zeynure has two distinct types of memories of her childhood in Xinjiang. The first was of blissful days spent in the countryside with her elders, who were agricultural workers. "I'd play with the sheep and poultry. I don't know if I will ever have that type of opportunity again. The family around the home 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 banned from attending the religious site or observing Ramadan.

China says it is tackling radicalism through 'controlling unauthorized religious activities' and 'training centers', but other nations, including the US, say its actions amount to ethnic cleansing. Zeynure says she never felt able to practice her faith in Xinjiang. "People who went on religious journey to Mecca in Saudi Arabia were detained and transferred to prison and told they must have some issue in their brain.

"They aimed for Uyghur people to abandon their religion and heritage. They said 'you should believe in us, we provided you jobs and this good life here'," says Zeynure.

She eventually decided to leave China after coming back home from university in another part of China to a increasing repression on beliefs in 2011. It was then that she was connected to Idris by one of her classmates. "She knew we both had taken the choice to go overseas and told us maybe we could meet 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 boys at university who wanted to wed me, but Idris was different."

Fresh Start in Turkey

Within 60 days they were married and ready to leave for a new life in Turkey. They knew it was an Islamic country with many believers and Uyghurs already residing there, with a comparable tongue and common background. "It was 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 die out," she says.

But their relief at finding a secure location overseas was short-lived. Beijing has become a global leader in targeting dissidents living in exile through the use of electronic surveillance, intimidation and violence. But what Idris was faced was a newer method of repression: using China's increasing economic leverage to force other nations to yield to its will, including arresting and extraditing Uyghurs it wants to silence.

Fighting for Freedom

After the call from Idris, and discovering he had an Interpol alert against him, Zeynure knew she only had a limited time of chance to try to stop his deportation to China. She immediately contacted as many Uyghur advocacy organizations as she could find advertised online in Europe and the US and begged for assistance. She was fearless despite China having already demonstrated a willingness to target the family members of other individuals.

Zeynure started protesting with her children at the Moroccan embassy in Istanbul, and sharing information on online platforms. To her surprise, copycat protests soon occurred in Morocco demanding Idris's release. Moroccan officials were forced to issue a statement saying his extradition was a issue for the courts to determine.

In early August 2021, Interpol cancelled 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 diplomatic pressure from Beijing, which made {little sense|