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In the summer of 2021, Zeynure Hasan was at her residence in Turkey's largest city when she answered a desperately anticipated phone call from her husband. There had been four agonizing days since their last contact, when he was getting ready to board a flight to Casablanca. The lack of communication had been unbearable.

But the information her husband Idris shared was more alarming. He told her that upon landing in Morocco, he had been arrested and jailed. Authorities told him he would be extradited to China. "Reach out to everyone who can assist me," he said, before the line went dead.

Existence as Ethnic Minority in Turkey

The wife, in her early thirties, and Idris, 37, are members of the Uyghur community, which makes up about half of the population in China's north-western Xinjiang region. Over the past decade, more than a 1,000,000 Uyghurs are reported to have been imprisoned in alleged "re-education camps," where they faced abuse for ordinary actions like attending a mosque or using a headscarf.

The couple had joined many of Uyghurs who fled to Turkey during the 2010s. They thought they would find security in exile, but quickly found they were mistaken.

"Authorities informed me that the Chinese government warned to close all its factories in the country if Morocco freed him," Zeynure explained.

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure worked as an language instructor, while Idris started as a interpreter and artist, helping to publish Uyghur media and publications. They had three children and enjoyed able to live as Muslims.

But when one of Idris's close friends, who was employed in a book repository containing Uyghur books, was arrested in the mid-year of 2021, Idris panicked. News indicated that Beijing was pressuring Turkey to deport Uyghurs. Idris felt at risk due to his prior detention, which he believed was connected to his work with advocates and promoting Uyghur culture. He decided to escape to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had lapsed, had to stay behind with the children until her husband could request a visa for the family.

A Costly Mistake

Leaving Turkey proved to be a terrible decision. At the airport, border control officials took Idris aside for questioning. "After he was eventually allowed to get on 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 using the international police agency Interpol to pursue political refugees and had asked for Idris to be added on the agency's high-priority "alert list." Zeynure claims Turkish officials let him board the flight knowing he would be apprehended upon arrival in Morocco.

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

Parental Pressure

Shortly after hearing of her husband's arrest, Zeynure received an surprising phone call from her family in Xinjiang. She had been cut off from her family since they visited her in Turkey in 2016 and were imprisoned for a few months upon their going back to China.

Her parents had a disturbing warning. "They said, 'We know your husband is not with you. Perhaps we can help you,'" she explained. "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 feeding your children,' they told me. 'Avoid saying anything bad about China.'"

But with her husband's safety at risk, 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 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 social media or Twitter. But I had to do something to save my husband – I had to reveal the truth to the international community. Everyone knows Uyghurs sent to China will be abused or killed. They pushed me to speak out."

Growing Up in Xinjiang

Zeynure has different types of recollections of her early years in Xinjiang. The first was of blissful days spent in the rural areas with her grandparents, who were farmers. "I used to play with the animals and chickens. I don't know if I will ever have that kind of chance again. The family around the home and farm. It was too beautiful, like a scene from a story."

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

China says it is addressing radicalism through 'controlling unauthorized religious activities' and 'training facilities', but other nations, including the US, say its actions amount to genocide. Zeynure says she never felt able to follow her religious beliefs in Xinjiang. "Individuals who went on pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia were arrested and sent to prison and told they must have some problem in their brain.

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

She finally decided to leave China after coming back home from university in another part of China to a growing 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 taken the decision to go overseas and told us maybe we could get together and go together."

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

Fresh Start in Turkey

Within two months they were wed and ready to move for a different existence in Turkey. They knew it was an Islamic country with many believers and Uyghurs already living there, with a similar tongue and shared background. "It was like Uyghurs' second home," says Zeynure. As a teacher and designer, they could also help the community in diaspora. "There are many children now in China growing up without Uyghur culture or language so we think it's our responsibility to not let it disappear," she says.

But their relief at locating a place of safety overseas was temporary. Beijing has become a prominent force in targeting dissidents living in exile through the use of electronic surveillance, intimidation and physical assault. But what Idris was subjected to was a newer method of control: using China's increasing economic leverage to pressure other countries to yield to its will, including detaining and deporting Uyghurs it wants to silence.

Campaigning 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 chance to try to stop his extradition to China. She immediately contacted as many Uyghur advocacy organizations as she could find advertised on the internet in Europe and the US and pleaded for assistance. She was brave despite China having already demonstrated a readiness to target the family members of other targets.

Zeynure started protesting with her children at the Moroccan embassy in Istanbul, and sharing information on online platforms. To her surprise, copycat protests soon followed in Morocco calling for Idris's release. Moroccan officials were compelled to issue a statement saying his extradition was a issue for the judicial system to decide.

In the start of August 2021, Interpol cancelled Idris's alert after being pressed to review his case by human rights groups. But that did not prevent 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|