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In the summer of 2021, a Uyghur woman named Zeynure was at her residence in Istanbul when she answered a long-awaited phone call from her husband. There had been four painful days since their last contact, when he was getting ready to take a flight to Morocco. The silence had been difficult.

But the news her husband Idris delivered was more alarming. He explained that upon landing in Morocco, he had been taken into custody and imprisoned. Authorities told him he would be deported to China. "Reach out to everyone who can rescue me," he said, before the line went silent.

Life as Ethnic Minority in Exile

Zeynure, 31 years old, and Idris, in his late thirties, are members of the mostly Muslim ethnic group, which constitutes about 50% of the population in China's north-western Xinjiang region. Over the last ten years, over a million Uyghurs are reported to have been detained in so-called "re-education camps," where they faced abuse for commonplace actions like attending a place of worship or using a hijab.

The couple had been among many of Uyghurs who escaped to Turkey during the previous decade. They believed they would find refuge in their new home, but quickly found they were wrong.

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

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure worked as an English teacher, while Idris began as a translator and designer, assisting to publish Uyghur media and publications. They had three children and felt able to live as followers of Islam.

But when one of Idris's close 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 extradite Uyghurs. Idris felt at risk due to his previous detention, which he suspected was linked to his work with activists and supporting Uyghur culture. He decided to flee to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had expired, had to remain 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 pulled him aside for interrogation. "When he was finally permitted to board the plane, he told me how happy he was that they had let him go, but it felt like a set-up to me," she recalled. Her deepest concerns were realized when he was removed from the plane and detained by Moroccan authorities.

Over the past decade, China has been using the international police agency Interpol to target dissidents and had requested 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 arrival in Morocco.

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

Family Interference

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

Her parents had a chilling message. "They said, 'We know your husband is not with you. Perhaps we can help you,'" she explained. "I realized there must be some authorities there with them and just acted like I didn't know anything. But they insisted 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 risk, the softly spoken Zeynure was not going to remain silent. She had been raised seeing women having their hijabs ripped off in public 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 Twitter. But I had to do something to save my husband – I had to tell the reality to the international community. Everyone knows Uyghurs deported to China will be tortured or die. They pushed me to raise my voice."

Growing Up in Xinjiang

Zeynure has two distinct types of memories of her childhood in Xinjiang. The first was of happy days spent in the rural areas with her grandparents, who were agricultural workers. "I used to play with the sheep and poultry. I don't know if I will ever have that type of opportunity again. The family around the home and farm. It was too wonderful, like a picture from a story."

The second was as a Muslim Uyghur in Xinjiang, of school holidays interrupted by forced teachings of "political anthems" and being banned from attending the mosque or observing Ramadan.

China claims it is addressing extremism through 'controlling unauthorized religious activities' and 'vocational education facilities', but other nations, including the US, say its actions constitute genocide. Zeynure says she never felt able to follow her faith in Xinjiang. "Individuals who went on pilgrimage to Mecca abroad were detained and transferred to prison and told they must have some problem in their brain.

"They wanted Uyghur people to forget their faith and heritage. They said 'you should believe in us, we gave you employment and this beautiful living here'," says Zeynure.

She finally decided to depart China after coming back 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 decision to go overseas and told us perhaps we could meet and go as a group."

Zeynure says she was right away reassured by Idris. "I saw he was very truthful and shy, 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 married and ready to leave for a new life in Turkey. They knew it was an Islamic country with many Muslims and Uyghurs already living there, with a similar language and common ethnicity. "It felt like Uyghurs' alternative homeland," says Zeynure. As a educator and creative, they could also support the community in diaspora. "We have many children now in China growing up without Uyghur culture or language so we think it's our responsibility to not let it die out," she says.

But their sense of safety at finding a secure location abroad was short-lived. Beijing has become a prominent force in pursuing dissidents living in exile through the use of electronic surveillance, threats and violence. But what Idris was subjected to was a newer tool of repression: using China's growing economic leverage to force other nations to yield to its demands, including arresting and deporting Uyghurs it wants to suppress.

Fighting for Freedom

After the call from Idris, and learning he had an Interpol alert hanging over him, Zeynure knew she only had a short window of opportunity to try to prevent his extradition to China. She right away reached out to as many Uyghur advocacy organizations as she could find listed on the internet in Europe and the US and pleaded for help. She was fearless despite China having already shown a willingness to go after the family members of other individuals.

Zeynure started demonstrating with her children at the Moroccan embassy in Istanbul, and sharing updates on social media. To her amazement, similar protests soon occurred in Morocco calling for Idris's release. Moroccan officials were compelled to put out a announcement saying his extradition was a matter for the judicial system to determine.

In the start of August 2021, Interpol withdrew Idris's alert 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 significant political influence from Beijing, which made {little sense|