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In July 2021, Zeynure Hasan was at her home in Istanbul when she got a desperately anticipated 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 Casablanca. The silence had been difficult.

But the news her husband Idris shared was more devastating. He informed her that upon arrival in Morocco, he had been detained and imprisoned. Authorities told him he would be sent back to China. "Contact everyone who can help me," he pleaded, before the line went silent.

Existence as Uyghurs in Turkey

Zeynure, in her early thirties, and Idris, 37, are members of the Uyghur ethnic group, which constitutes about 50% of the residents in China's western Xinjiang province. Over the past decade, more than a million Uyghurs are believed to have been imprisoned in so-called "re-education camps," where they faced abuse for commonplace acts like going to a mosque or using a headscarf.

The couple had been among thousands of Uyghurs who escaped to Turkey during the 2010s. They thought they would find refuge in exile, but quickly found they were mistaken.

"Authorities informed me that the Chinese government warned to shut down all its factories in the nation if Morocco freed him," Zeynure stated.

After settling in Istanbul, Zeynure became an language instructor, while Idris started as a interpreter and designer, helping to produce Uyghur media and publications. They had a family of three kids and enjoyed able to live as Muslims.

But when one of Idris's close friends, who was employed in a book repository stocking Uyghur books, was detained in the summer of 2021, Idris became fearful. Reports indicated that Beijing was pressuring Turkey to deport Uyghurs. Idris felt at risk due to his previous detention, which he believed was connected to his work with advocates and supporting Uyghur heritage. He chose to escape to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had expired, had to stay behind with the children until her husband could request a visa for the whole family.

A Costly Error

Departing Turkey proved to be a disastrous decision. At the Istanbul airport, immigration officials took Idris aside for questioning. "After he was finally allowed to get on the plane, he told me how relieved he was that they had let him go, but it felt like a set-up to me," she recalled. Her worst fears were confirmed when he was taken off the plane and detained by Moroccan authorities.

Over the last ten years, China has been utilizing the global police agency Interpol to target political refugees and had requested for Idris to be added on the agency's high-priority "alert list." Zeynure claims Turkish officials let him board the flight knowing he would be arrested upon arrival in Morocco.

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

Family Pressure

Shortly after learning of her husband's arrest, Zeynure received an unexpected phone call from her family in Xinjiang. She had been cut off from her family since they visited 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. Perhaps we can help you,'" Zeynure explained. "I knew there must be some police 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. 'Avoid doing anything except caring for your children,' they told me. 'Avoid saying anything bad about China.'"

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

"Before 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 save my husband – I had to tell the reality to the international community. Everyone knows Uyghurs sent to China will be tortured or killed. 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 happy days spent in the rural areas 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 beautiful, like a scene from a story."

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

China claims it is tackling extremism through 'managing unauthorized religious activities' and 'training centers', but other nations, including the US, say its actions constitute genocide. Zeynure says she never felt able to follow her faith in Xinjiang. "People who went on pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia were arrested and sent to jail and told they must have some issue in their mind.

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

She finally decided to leave China after returning home from university in another part of China to a growing repression on religious freedoms in 2011. It was then that she was introduced to Idris by one of her classmates. "She was aware we both had made the decision to go abroad and told us perhaps we could get together and go together."

Zeynure says she was right away comforted 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."

Fresh Start in Turkey

Within 60 days they were married and prepared to move for a different existence in Turkey. They knew it was an Islamic country with many Muslims and Uyghurs already living there, with a similar tongue and common background. "It felt like Uyghurs' second home," says Zeynure. As a teacher and designer, they could also support the community in exile. "We have many kids now in China being raised without Uyghur culture 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 overseas was short-lived. Beijing has become a global leader in targeting dissidents living in exile through the use of electronic surveillance, threats and violence. But what Idris was faced was a more recent method of control: using China's increasing financial influence to force other countries to yield to its demands, including arresting and extraditing Uyghurs it wants to suppress.

Campaigning for Release

After the call from Idris, and discovering he had an Interpol red notice hanging over him, Zeynure knew she only had a limited time of opportunity to try to prevent his deportation to China. She immediately contacted 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 target the family members of other individuals.

Zeynure started protesting with her children at the Moroccan embassy in Istanbul, and posting information on social media. To her surprise, similar protests soon followed in Morocco demanding Idris's freedom. Moroccan officials were forced to put out a statement saying his extradition was a issue for the judicial system to decide.

In the start of August 2021, Interpol withdrew Idris's alert after being pressed to review his case by human rights groups. But that did not stop a Moroccan court later deciding he should still be sent back to China. Zeynure says there was huge diplomatic pressure from Beijing, which made {little sense|