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In July 2021, Zeynure Hasan was at her home in Istanbul when she received a long-awaited phone call from her husband. There had been four painful days since their last communication, when he was preparing to take a flight to Morocco. The silence had been unbearable.

But the news her husband Idris delivered was more devastating. He informed her that upon landing in Morocco, he had been taken into custody and jailed. Authorities told him he would be sent back to China. "Reach out to everyone who can help me," he said, before the line went dead.

Life as Uyghurs in Exile

The wife, 31 years old, and Idris, in his late thirties, are members of the Uyghur ethnic group, which constitutes about 50% of the residents in China's western Xinjiang region. Over the past decade, more than a million Uyghurs are believed to have been imprisoned in alleged "re-education camps," where they faced abuse for commonplace actions like going to a place of worship or wearing a headscarf.

The couple had been among many of Uyghurs who fled to Turkey during the previous decade. They hoped they would find refuge in exile, but quickly discovered they were wrong.

"Authorities informed me that the Beijing officials warned to shut down all its factories in the nation if Morocco released him," she stated.

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

But when one of Idris's close friends, who was employed in a library stocking Uyghur books, was detained in the summer of 2021, Idris became fearful. News indicated that Beijing was pressuring Turkey to deport Uyghurs. Idris felt at risk due to his prior arrest, which he suspected 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 apply for a visa for the whole family.

A Costly Error

Leaving Turkey turned out to be a terrible mistake. At the airport, immigration officials pulled him aside for interrogation. "When he was finally permitted 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," Zeynure said. Her deepest concerns were realized when he was taken off the plane and arrested by Moroccan authorities.

Over the last ten years, China has been utilizing the international 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 let him board the flight knowing he would be arrested upon arrival in Morocco.

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

Family Interference

Shortly after hearing of her husband's detention, Zeynure received an surprising phone call from her parents in Xinjiang. She had been separated from her family since they visited 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 assist you,'" she stated. "I realized 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. 'Don't do anything except caring for your children,' they told me. 'Don't say anything negative about China.'"

But with her husband's safety at stake, the softly spoken Zeynure was not going to stay quiet. She had been raised seeing women having their hijabs forcibly removed in open by the authorities and had been determined to live in a country with religious freedom.

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

Growing Up in Xinjiang

Zeynure has two distinct types of recollections of her early years in Xinjiang. The first was of blissful days spent in the countryside with her grandparents, 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 family around the house and land. It was too beautiful, like a scene from a book."

The second was as a Muslim Uyghur in Xinjiang, of school holidays interrupted by mandatory teachings of "communist songs" and being banned from going to the religious site or observing Ramadan.

China claims it is tackling radicalism through 'managing illegal religious activities' and 'vocational education centers', but other countries, including the US, say its actions amount to ethnic cleansing. Zeynure says she never felt free to follow her religious beliefs in Xinjiang. "Individuals who went on pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia were detained and transferred to prison and told they must have some issue in their mind.

"They aimed for Uyghur people to abandon their faith and culture. They said 'you should trust in us, we provided you employment and this good living here'," says Zeynure.

She finally decided to leave China after coming back home from college in Eastern 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 decision to go overseas and told us perhaps we could meet and go together."

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

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 Muslim-majority country with many believers and Uyghurs already living there, with a similar language and shared background. "It felt like Uyghurs' second home," says Zeynure. As a teacher and creative, they could also support the community in diaspora. "We have 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 sense of safety at locating a place of safety overseas was temporary. Beijing has become a prominent force in targeting dissidents abroad through the use of electronic surveillance, intimidation and violence. But what Idris was faced was a newer tool of control: using China's increasing economic leverage to force other nations to bend to its demands, including arresting and deporting Uyghurs it wants to silence.

Fighting for Release

After the call from Idris, and discovering he had an Interpol red notice against him, Zeynure knew she only had a short window of opportunity to try to stop his extradition to China. She immediately reached out to as many Uyghur support groups 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 demonstrated a readiness to target the family members of other individuals.

Zeynure started protesting with her children at the diplomatic mission in Istanbul, and sharing information on social media. To her surprise, similar protests soon followed in Morocco calling for Idris's release. Moroccan officials were compelled to put out a statement saying his extradition was a matter for the courts to determine.

In early August 2021, Interpol withdrew Idris's red notice after being urged to review 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 huge political influence from Beijing, which made {little sense|