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

But the information her husband Idris shared was more devastating. He told her that upon arrival in Morocco, he had been taken into custody and jailed. Authorities told him he would be deported to China. "Reach out to everyone who can rescue me," he pleaded, before the line went silent.

Life as Ethnic Minority in Exile

Zeynure, 31 years old, and Idris, 37, are part of the Uyghur community, which makes up about 50% of the residents in China's western Xinjiang province. Over the past decade, over a million Uyghurs are believed to have been imprisoned in alleged "re-education camps," where they faced abuse for ordinary acts like attending a place of worship or wearing a headscarf.

The pair had been among thousands of Uyghurs who fled to Turkey during the 2010s. They believed they would find refuge in their new home, but soon discovered they were mistaken.

"I was told that the Chinese government threatened to close all its factories in the nation if Morocco released him," Zeynure said.

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure worked as an language instructor, while Idris started as a interpreter and designer, helping to produce Uyghur media and publications. They had three children and enjoyed able to practice as followers of Islam.

But when one of Idris's best friends, who worked in a library stocking Uyghur books, was arrested in the mid-year of 2021, Idris panicked. Reports indicated that Beijing was pressuring Turkey to extradite Uyghurs. Idris felt vulnerable due to his previous arrest, which he suspected was connected to his work with advocates and supporting Uyghur heritage. He decided to escape to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had expired, had to remain with the children until her husband could request a visa for the whole family.

A Costly Mistake

Leaving Turkey proved to be a disastrous mistake. At the airport, immigration officials took Idris aside for interrogation. "After he was finally permitted to board the plane, he told me how relieved he was that they had released him, but it felt like a set-up to me," Zeynure said. Her worst fears 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 political refugees and had requested for Idris to be placed on the agency's most-wanted "red notice list." Zeynure says Turkish officials allowed him board the flight aware he would be apprehended upon arrival in Morocco.

What happened next would convince her to do what many Uyghurs fear most: challenge China, regardless of the risks.

Family 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 return to China.

Her parents had a disturbing warning. "They told me, 'We know your husband is not with you. Maybe we can assist you,'" Zeynure explained. "I knew there must be some police 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 life at stake, the quiet-mannered Zeynure was not going to stay quiet. She had grown up witnessing women having their head coverings ripped off in public by the authorities and had been determined to live in a country with freedom of belief.

"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 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 sent to China will be tortured or die. They forced me to raise my voice."

Growing Up in Xinjiang

Zeynure has two distinct types of recollections of her childhood in Xinjiang. The first was of blissful days spent in the countryside 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 type of opportunity again. The relatives around the home 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 prohibited from going to the mosque or observing Ramadan.

China says it is addressing radicalism through 'managing unauthorized religious activities' and 'vocational education facilities', but other countries, including the US, say its actions amount to ethnic cleansing. Zeynure says she never felt able to follow her faith in Xinjiang. "Individuals who went on religious journey to Mecca in Saudi Arabia were arrested and sent to prison and told they must have some problem in their mind.

"They aimed for Uyghur people to forget their faith and culture. They said 'you should believe in us, we gave you employment and this beautiful living here'," says Zeynure.

She eventually decided to depart China after returning home from college in another part of China to a increasing 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 decision to go overseas and told us perhaps we could get together and go together."

Zeynure says she was immediately reassured 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 marry me, but Idris was unique."

Fresh Start in Turkey

Within two months they were married and prepared to move for a different existence in Turkey. They knew it was an Muslim-majority country with many believers and Uyghurs already living there, with a similar language and common ethnicity. "It was like Uyghurs' alternative homeland," says Zeynure. As a teacher and designer, they could also help the Uyghur population in exile. "We have many kids now in China growing up without Uyghur traditions or language so we think it's our duty to not let it disappear," she says.

But their relief at locating a secure location overseas was short-lived. Beijing has become a global leader in targeting dissidents living in exile through the use of monitoring, threats and violence. But what Idris was subjected to was a newer tool 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 suppress.

Fighting for Release

After the call from Idris, and learning he had an Interpol alert hanging over him, Zeynure knew she only had a short window of opportunity to try to stop his deportation to China. She right away reached out to as many Uyghur support groups as she could find listed online in the EU and the US and begged for assistance. 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 information on social media. To her surprise, copycat protests soon occurred in Morocco demanding Idris's freedom. Moroccan officials were compelled to issue a announcement saying his extradition was a issue for the judicial system to determine.

In early August 2021, Interpol withdrew Idris's alert after being pressed to review his case by advocacy organizations. But that did not stop a Moroccan court later ruling he should still be sent back to China. Zeynure says there was significant political influence from Beijing, which made {little sense|