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In the summer of 2021, a Uyghur woman named Zeynure was at her residence in Turkey's largest city when she received a long-awaited 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 arrival in Morocco, he had been taken into custody and imprisoned. Authorities informed him he would be extradited to China. "Call anyone who can assist me," he said, before the line went silent.

Existence as Ethnic Minority in Turkey

Zeynure, 31 years old, and Idris, 37, are part of the mostly Muslim ethnic group, which makes up about 50% of the population in China's western Xinjiang province. Over the last ten years, more than a 1,000,000 Uyghurs are believed to have been imprisoned in alleged "vocational training camps," where they faced mistreatment for commonplace actions like attending a place of worship or wearing a headscarf.

The pair had joined many of Uyghurs who fled to Turkey during the previous decade. They believed they would find refuge in exile, but quickly found they were wrong.

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

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

But when one of Idris's best friends, who worked in a book repository stocking Uyghur books, was detained in the mid-year of 2021, Idris became fearful. Reports indicated that Beijing was pressuring Turkey to deport Uyghurs. Idris felt vulnerable due to his prior detention, which he suspected was connected to his work with advocates and supporting Uyghur culture. He decided to flee to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had lapsed, had to remain with the children until her husband could request a travel document for the family.

A Terrible Error

Leaving Turkey proved to be a disastrous decision. At the Istanbul airport, border control officials pulled him aside for interrogation. "When he was finally permitted to get on the plane, he told me how happy he was that they had released him, but it felt like a trap 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 pursue political refugees and had asked for Idris to be placed on the agency's high-priority "red notice list." Zeynure says Turkish officials allowed him board the flight knowing he would be apprehended upon landing in Morocco.

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

Family Pressure

Soon after learning of her husband's detention, Zeynure received an surprising phone call from her family 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 message. "They told me, 'We know your husband is not with you. Perhaps we can assist you,'" she stated. "I knew 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 bad about China.'"

But with her husband's safety at risk, the softly spoken Zeynure was not going to remain silent. She had been raised seeing women having their hijabs forcibly removed in open 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 looking after 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 reality to the international community. Everyone knows Uyghurs sent to China will be tortured or die. They forced me to speak out."

Growing Up in Xinjiang

Zeynure has different types of memories of her childhood in Xinjiang. The first was of blissful days spent in the rural areas with her elders, who were agricultural workers. "I'd play with the sheep and poultry. I don't know if I will ever have that type of chance again. The family around the house and land. It was too wonderful, like a picture from a book."

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

China claims it is addressing extremism through 'managing unauthorized religious activities' and 'training centers', but other nations, including the US, say its actions constitute ethnic cleansing. Zeynure says she never felt free to follow her religious beliefs in Xinjiang. "Individuals who went on religious journey to Mecca in Saudi Arabia were arrested and transferred to prison and told they must have some problem in their mind.

"They aimed for Uyghur people to abandon their religion and heritage. They said 'you should believe in us, we gave you jobs and this beautiful life here'," says Zeynure.

She eventually decided to depart China after coming back home from college in another part of China to a increasing 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 choice to go abroad 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 truthful and reserved, and couldn't tell lies or do anything bad. There were some Uyghur men at university who wanted to marry me, but Idris was unique."

Fresh Start in Turkey

Within two months they were married and prepared to leave for a different existence in Turkey. They knew it was an Islamic country with many Muslims and Uyghurs already living there, with a similar language and common background. "It felt like Uyghurs' second home," says Zeynure. As a educator and designer, they could also help the Uyghur population in exile. "We have many kids now in China being raised without Uyghur traditions or dialect 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 global leader in targeting dissidents abroad through the use of monitoring, intimidation and violence. But what Idris was faced was a newer tool of repression: using China's growing financial influence to pressure other nations to bend to its will, including arresting and deporting Uyghurs it wants to suppress.

Campaigning for Release

After the call from Idris, and learning he had an Interpol alert against him, Zeynure knew she only had a short window of opportunity to try to prevent his deportation to China. She immediately contacted as many Uyghur support groups 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 shown a readiness to target the relatives of other targets.

Zeynure started demonstrating with her children at the Moroccan embassy in Istanbul, and posting updates on social media. To her amazement, similar 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 red notice after being urged to reexamine 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 diplomatic pressure from Beijing, which made {little sense|