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In July 2021, Zeynure Hasan was at her home in Turkey's largest city when she received a long-awaited phone call from her husband. There had been four agonizing days since their last communication, when he was preparing to take a flight to Morocco. The lack of communication had been difficult.

But the update her husband Idris shared was even worse. He explained that upon landing in Morocco, he had been arrested and imprisoned. Authorities stated he would be sent back to China. "Contact anyone who can rescue me," he urged, before the line went silent.

Life as Uyghurs in Turkey

The wife, 31 years old, and Idris, 37, are part of the mostly Muslim community, which constitutes about half of the residents in China's north-western Xinjiang province. Over the past decade, more than a 1,000,000 Uyghurs are estimated to have been detained in alleged "re-education camps," where they faced torture for ordinary acts like attending a place of worship or using a hijab.

The pair had joined thousands of Uyghurs who escaped to Turkey during the previous decade. They thought they would find refuge in their new home, but quickly realized they were mistaken.

"I was told that the Chinese government threatened to shut down all its industrial plants in the nation 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 publish Uyghur news and publications. They had three children and enjoyed free to live as Muslims.

But when one of Idris's best friends, who was employed in a library stocking Uyghur books, was arrested in the mid-year of 2021, Idris became fearful. Reports indicated that Beijing was urging Turkey to deport Uyghurs. Idris felt vulnerable due to his prior arrest, which he believed was linked to his work with advocates and promoting Uyghur culture. He chose to escape to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had lapsed, had to remain with the children until her husband could request a visa for the family.

A Costly Error

Leaving Turkey proved to be a disastrous decision. At the airport, border control officials pulled him aside for interrogation. "When he was eventually permitted to get on 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 worst fears were realized when he was taken off the plane and detained by Moroccan authorities.

Over the past decade, China has been using the global police agency Interpol to pursue dissidents and had requested for Idris to be placed on the agency's most-wanted "alert list." Zeynure claims Turkish officials let him take the flight knowing he would be arrested upon arrival in Morocco.

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

Parental Interference

Shortly after hearing of her husband's arrest, Zeynure received an unexpected phone call from her parents in Xinjiang. She had been separated from her relatives since they came to see her in Turkey in 2016 and were jailed 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 help you,'" Zeynure explained. "I knew there must be some police there with them and just acted 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. 'Don't say anything bad about China.'"

But with her husband's safety at risk, the quiet-mannered Zeynure was not going to remain silent. She had been raised witnessing women having their hijabs forcibly removed in open by the authorities and had been determined to live in a country with religious freedom.

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

Growing Up in Xinjiang

Zeynure has different types of recollections of her childhood in Xinjiang. The first was of blissful days spent in the rural areas with her elders, who were farmers. "I'd play with the animals and poultry. I don't know if I will ever have that kind of chance again. The relatives around the home and farm. It was too beautiful, like a picture from a book."

The second was as a religious minority in Xinjiang, of vacations cut short by mandatory teachings of "political anthems" and being banned from attending the religious site or observing Ramadan.

China claims it is tackling radicalism through 'managing illegal religious activities' and 'training centers', but other nations, including the US, say its actions amount to genocide. Zeynure says she never felt free to practice her religious beliefs in Xinjiang. "People who went on religious journey to Mecca abroad were detained and sent to prison and told they must have some issue in their mind.

"They wanted Uyghur people to abandon their religion and heritage. They said 'you should trust in us, we provided you jobs and this good life 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 beliefs in 2011. It was then that she was introduced to Idris by one of her school friends. "She knew we both had made the decision to go overseas and told us maybe we could get together and go together."

Zeynure says she was immediately comforted by Idris. "I saw he was very truthful and reserved, and couldn't be dishonest 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 prepared to move for a new life 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 felt like Uyghurs' second home," says Zeynure. As a teacher and creative, they could also support the community in exile. "We have many children now in China being raised 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 place of safety overseas was short-lived. Beijing has become a prominent force in pursuing critics abroad through the use of electronic surveillance, intimidation and violence. But what Idris was subjected to was a newer method of control: using China's increasing financial influence to pressure other countries to yield to its will, including detaining and extraditing Uyghurs it wants to silence.

Campaigning for Release

After the call from Idris, and learning he had an Interpol alert hanging over him, Zeynure knew she only had a limited time of chance to try to prevent his deportation to China. She right away reached out to as many Uyghur advocacy organizations as she could find advertised on the internet in the EU and the US and begged for help. She was brave despite China having already demonstrated a readiness to target the relatives of other targets.

Zeynure started demonstrating with her children at the Moroccan embassy in Istanbul, and sharing updates on social media. To her surprise, copycat protests soon followed in Morocco calling for Idris's freedom. Moroccan officials were compelled to issue a announcement saying his deportation was a matter for the judicial system to decide.

In the start of August 2021, Interpol cancelled Idris's red notice after being pressed to reexamine his case by human rights groups. But that did not prevent a Moroccan court later ruling he should still be extradited to China. Zeynure says there was huge diplomatic pressure from Beijing, which made {little sense|