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In July 2021, a Uyghur woman named Zeynure was at her residence in Istanbul when she received a desperately anticipated phone call from her husband. It had been four painful days since their last contact, when he was preparing to take a flight to Casablanca. The lack of communication had been difficult.

But the information her husband Idris revealed was even worse. He told her that upon landing in Morocco, he had been taken into custody and jailed. Authorities told him he would be sent back to China. "Call anyone who can assist me," he pleaded, before the line went silent.

Life as Ethnic Minority in Turkey

Zeynure, 31 years old, and Idris, 37, are members of the mostly Muslim community, which makes up about 50% of the residents in China's north-western Xinjiang region. Over the last ten years, over a 1,000,000 Uyghurs are reported to have been detained in so-called "re-education camps," where they faced torture for ordinary actions like going to a mosque or wearing a headscarf.

The pair had been among thousands of Uyghurs who escaped to Turkey during the 2010s. They thought they would find safety in exile, but soon discovered they were mistaken.

"I was told that the Chinese government warned to shut down all its industrial plants in the country if Morocco released him," Zeynure said.

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure worked as an language instructor, while Idris began as a translator and artist, helping to produce Uyghur news and printed works. They had three children and enjoyed able to practice as followers of Islam.

But when one of Idris's best friends, who was employed in a book repository containing Uyghur books, was arrested in the mid-year of 2021, Idris became fearful. News indicated that Beijing was pressuring Turkey to extradite Uyghurs. Idris felt at risk due to his previous arrest, which he believed was connected to his work with advocates and supporting Uyghur culture. He decided to escape to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had lapsed, had to remain with the children until her husband could apply for a visa for the family.

A Terrible Error

Departing Turkey turned out to be a disastrous decision. At the Istanbul airport, border control 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 trap to me," she recalled. Her worst fears were realized when he was taken off the plane and detained by border officials.

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

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

Parental Pressure

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 came to see her in Turkey in 2016 and were jailed for several months upon their return to China.

Her parents had a disturbing warning. "They said, 'We know your husband is not with you. Maybe we can assist you,'" Zeynure stated. "I realized there must be some authorities 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. 'Don't do anything except caring for your children,' they told me. 'Don't say anything bad about China.'"

But with her husband's safety at risk, the quiet-mannered 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 religious freedom.

"Before 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 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 killed. They pushed me to speak out."

Childhood in Xinjiang

Zeynure has different types of memories of her early years 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 type of chance again. The family around the home and land. It was too wonderful, like a picture from a book."

The second was as a religious minority in Xinjiang, of school holidays interrupted by forced teachings of "political anthems" and being prohibited from attending the religious site or practicing Ramadan.

China claims it is addressing extremism through 'controlling unauthorized religious activities' and 'training centers', but other countries, including the US, say its actions amount to ethnic cleansing. Zeynure says she never felt free to practice her faith in Xinjiang. "Individuals who went on religious journey to Mecca abroad were arrested and sent to prison and told they must have some problem in their mind.

"They wanted Uyghur people to forget their religion and heritage. They said 'you should believe in us, we gave you jobs and this beautiful living 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 taken the decision to go overseas and told us perhaps we could get together and go together."

Zeynure says she was immediately reassured by Idris. "I realized 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 different."

A New Life in Turkey

Within two months they were wed and ready to leave for a different existence in Turkey. They knew it was an Islamic country with many Muslims and Uyghurs already residing there, with a similar tongue and common ethnicity. "It was like Uyghurs' second home," says Zeynure. As a educator and creative, they could also support the community in exile. "There are many kids now in China growing up without Uyghur traditions or dialect 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 overseas was short-lived. Beijing has become a global leader in pursuing critics living in exile through the use of monitoring, threats and physical assault. But what Idris was faced was a newer method of repression: using China's increasing economic leverage to pressure other countries to yield to its will, including detaining and extraditing Uyghurs it wants to silence.

Fighting for Freedom

After the phone call from Idris, and discovering he had an Interpol red notice hanging over him, Zeynure knew she only had a limited time of opportunity to try to prevent his deportation to China. She immediately reached out to as many Uyghur support groups as she could find listed online in the EU and the US and begged for help. She was fearless despite China having already demonstrated a readiness to target the relatives of other individuals.

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

In early August 2021, Interpol withdrew 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 huge political influence from Beijing, which made {little sense|