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In July 2021, a Uyghur woman named Zeynure was at her home in Turkey's largest city when she got a long-awaited phone call from her husband. It had been four stressful days since their last communication, when he was preparing to take a flight to Casablanca. The silence had been difficult.

But the news her husband Idris revealed was even worse. He informed her that upon landing in Morocco, he had been detained and jailed. Authorities stated he would be extradited to China. "Contact everyone who can assist me," he pleaded, before the line went silent.

Life as Uyghurs in Turkey

Zeynure, 31 years old, and Idris, in his late thirties, are part of the mostly Muslim ethnic group, which makes up about 50% of the population in China's north-western Xinjiang province. Over the past decade, more than a 1,000,000 Uyghurs are reported to have been detained in so-called "re-education camps," where they faced torture for commonplace 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 security in exile, but soon discovered they were mistaken.

"I was told that the Chinese government warned to close all its factories in the nation if Morocco freed him," she stated.

After settling in Istanbul, Zeynure worked as an language instructor, while Idris began as a interpreter and designer, assisting to publish Uyghur media and printed works. They had three children and felt free 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. News indicated that Beijing was urging Turkey to deport Uyghurs. Idris felt at risk due to his previous detention, which he suspected was connected to his work with activists and supporting 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 whole family.

A Terrible Error

Departing Turkey proved to be a disastrous decision. At the Istanbul airport, immigration officials pulled him aside for interrogation. "When he was finally permitted to board the plane, he told me how relieved he was that they had let him go, but it felt like a trap to me," she said. Her deepest concerns were realized when he was removed from the plane and detained by border officials.

Over the past decade, China has been using the international police agency Interpol to target political refugees and had asked for Idris to be added on the agency's high-priority "red notice list." Zeynure says Turkish officials allowed him take 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, regardless of the risks.

Parental Pressure

Soon after hearing of her husband's arrest, Zeynure received an unexpected phone call from her parents in Xinjiang. She had been cut off from her relatives since they visited her in Turkey in 2016 and were imprisoned for several months upon their going back 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 stated. "I realized 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 negative about China.'"

But with her husband's life at stake, the softly spoken Zeynure was not going to stay quiet. She had grown up seeing women having their hijabs forcibly removed in open by the police and had been determined to live in a country with religious freedom.

"Prior to my husband was arrested in Morocco, I didn't do anything. I was just looking after my family; I didn't even have social media or these platforms. But I had to do something to rescue my husband – I had to tell the reality to the international community. Everyone knows Uyghurs deported to China will be abused 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 happy days spent in the countryside 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 home and farm. It was too wonderful, like a picture from a book."

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

China says it is addressing radicalism through 'controlling unauthorized religious activities' and 'vocational education centers', but other nations, including the US, say its actions constitute ethnic cleansing. Zeynure says she never felt free to follow her faith in Xinjiang. "Individuals who went on religious journey to Mecca abroad were detained and transferred 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 gave you employment and this good living here'," says Zeynure.

She eventually decided to depart China after coming back home from university in Eastern China to a increasing crackdown on beliefs in 2011. It was then that she was connected 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 as a group."

Zeynure says she was immediately reassured by Idris. "I saw he was very honest and reserved, and couldn't be dishonest or do anything wrong. There were some Uyghur boys at university who wanted to marry me, but Idris was unique."

A New Life in Turkey

Within two months they were married and prepared to move for a new life in Turkey. They knew it was an Islamic country with many believers and Uyghurs already residing 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 community in exile. "There are many children now in China being raised without Uyghur traditions or dialect so we think it's our responsibility to not let it disappear," she says.

But their relief at locating a place of safety abroad was short-lived. Beijing has become a prominent force in pursuing dissidents abroad through the use of monitoring, intimidation and physical assault. But what Idris was subjected to was a more recent tool of control: using China's growing economic leverage to pressure other nations to bend to its demands, including arresting and extraditing Uyghurs it wants to silence.

Fighting for Freedom

After the phone call from Idris, and learning he had an Interpol alert hanging over him, Zeynure knew she only had a short window of chance to try to stop his deportation to China. She immediately contacted as many Uyghur advocacy organizations as she could find advertised on the internet in Europe and the US and begged for assistance. She was brave despite China having already shown a willingness to target the family members of other individuals.

Zeynure started protesting with her children at the Moroccan embassy in Istanbul, and posting updates on social media. To her surprise, copycat protests soon followed in Morocco demanding Idris's freedom. Moroccan officials were compelled to issue a statement saying his deportation was a matter for the courts to decide.

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