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In the summer of 2021, a Uyghur woman named Zeynure was at her residence in Istanbul when she received a desperately anticipated phone call from her husband. It had been four painful days since their last contact, when he was getting ready to take a flight to Casablanca. The silence had been torturous.

But the information her husband Idris shared was even worse. He informed her that upon landing in Morocco, he had been arrested and jailed. Authorities informed him he would be sent back to China. "Reach out to everyone who can help me," he urged, 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 residents in China's western Xinjiang region. Over the last ten years, over a 1,000,000 Uyghurs are reported to have been detained in alleged "re-education camps," where they faced mistreatment for commonplace actions like attending a mosque or using a hijab.

The pair had joined many of Uyghurs who escaped to Turkey during the 2010s. They believed they would find refuge in their new home, but quickly realized they were mistaken.

"I was told that the Beijing officials warned to shut down all its industrial plants in the nation if Morocco freed him," she stated.

After settling in Istanbul, Zeynure became an English teacher, while Idris started as a translator and artist, assisting to produce Uyghur news and printed works. They had three children and enjoyed free to live as followers of Islam.

But when one of Idris's close friends, who was employed in a library containing Uyghur books, was arrested in the summer of 2021, Idris panicked. Reports indicated that Beijing was urging Turkey to deport Uyghurs. Idris felt at risk due to his previous arrest, which he suspected was connected 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 travel document for the whole family.

A Costly Mistake

Departing Turkey turned out to be a terrible mistake. At the airport, immigration officials pulled him aside for interrogation. "After he was finally allowed 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 recalled. Her deepest concerns were realized when he was taken off the plane and detained by border officials.

Over the last ten years, China has been utilizing the global police agency Interpol to target dissidents and had requested for Idris to be placed on the agency's most-wanted "red notice list." Zeynure claims Turkish officials let him take the flight aware he would be apprehended upon arrival in Morocco.

What happened next would lead her to do what many Uyghurs fear most: defy China, regardless of the consequences.

Parental Interference

Shortly after learning of her husband's detention, 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 message. "They told me, 'We know your husband is not with you. Maybe we can assist you,'" Zeynure stated. "I realized there must be some authorities 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. 'Don't do anything except feeding your children,' they told me. 'Don't say anything negative about China.'"

But with her husband's safety at stake, the quiet-mannered Zeynure was not going to stay quiet. She had been raised seeing 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 looking after my family; I didn't even have Facebook or these platforms. But I had to do something to rescue my husband – I had to tell the truth to the international community. Everyone knows Uyghurs deported to China will be abused or die. They forced me to speak out."

Growing Up in Xinjiang

Zeynure has two distinct types of memories of her early years in Xinjiang. The first was of blissful days spent in the countryside with her grandparents, 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 wonderful, like a scene from a story."

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

China says it is addressing extremism through 'controlling illegal religious activities' and 'vocational education centers', but other countries, including the US, say its actions constitute genocide. Zeynure says she never felt able to follow her religious beliefs in Xinjiang. "People who went on pilgrimage to Mecca abroad were arrested and sent to prison and told they must have some issue in their brain.

"They wanted Uyghur people to abandon their religion and heritage. They said 'you should believe in us, we provided you employment and this good life here'," says Zeynure.

She eventually decided to leave China after returning home from university 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 school friends. "She knew we both had made the choice to go overseas and told us perhaps we could get together and go as a group."

Zeynure says she was right away reassured by Idris. "I realized he was very truthful and reserved, and couldn't be dishonest or do anything wrong. There were some Uyghur men at university who wanted to wed me, but Idris was unique."

A New Life in Turkey

Within 60 days they were wed and prepared to move for a new life in Turkey. They knew it was an Muslim-majority country with many believers and Uyghurs already living there, with a similar tongue and common background. "It felt like Uyghurs' alternative homeland," says Zeynure. As a teacher and designer, they could also support the community in diaspora. "There are many children now in China being raised without Uyghur culture or dialect so we think it's our responsibility to not let it die out," she says.

But their relief at finding a secure location abroad was short-lived. Beijing has become a global leader in pursuing dissidents living in exile through the use of monitoring, threats and physical assault. But what Idris was faced was a more recent tool of control: using China's growing financial influence to pressure other countries to yield to its will, including arresting and deporting Uyghurs it wants to suppress.

Fighting for Release

After the phone call from Idris, and discovering he had an Interpol red notice hanging over him, Zeynure knew she only had a short window of chance to try to stop his extradition to China. She right away contacted as many Uyghur advocacy organizations as she could find listed online in the EU and the US and begged for assistance. She was fearless despite China having already shown a readiness to go after the relatives of other individuals.

Zeynure started demonstrating with her children at the diplomatic mission in Istanbul, and posting information on social media. To her surprise, copycat protests soon occurred in Morocco calling for Idris's release. Moroccan officials were compelled to put out a announcement saying his deportation was a issue for the judicial system to decide.

In the start of August 2021, Interpol cancelled 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 extradited to China. Zeynure says there was huge political influence from Beijing, which made {little sense|