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In July 2021, Zeynure Hasan was at her home in Istanbul when she answered a long-awaited phone call from her husband. There had been four agonizing days since their last contact, when he was preparing to board a flight to Morocco. The lack of communication had been difficult.

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

Existence as Uyghurs in Turkey

The wife, in her early thirties, and Idris, in his late thirties, are part of the mostly Muslim ethnic group, which constitutes about 50% of the population in China's north-western Xinjiang region. Over the past decade, over a million Uyghurs are reported to have been imprisoned in alleged "re-education camps," where they faced torture for ordinary actions like attending a mosque or wearing a hijab.

The pair had joined thousands of Uyghurs who fled to Turkey during the 2010s. They hoped they would find security in their new home, but quickly realized they were mistaken.

"Authorities informed me that the Beijing officials threatened to shut down all its industrial plants in the country if Morocco released him," Zeynure stated.

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure worked as an language instructor, while Idris began as a interpreter and designer, assisting to produce Uyghur media and publications. They had a family of three kids and enjoyed able to practice as Muslims.

But when one of Idris's close friends, who worked in a library containing Uyghur books, was detained in the summer of 2021, Idris panicked. Reports indicated that Beijing was urging Turkey to deport Uyghurs. Idris felt vulnerable due to his prior detention, which he suspected was linked 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 apply for a travel document for the family.

A Terrible Error

Departing Turkey turned out to be a terrible decision. At the airport, immigration officials took Idris aside for interrogation. "When he was eventually permitted to board the plane, he told me how happy he was that they had released him, but it felt like a trap to me," she recalled. Her worst fears were realized when he was removed from the plane and detained by border officials.

Over the last ten years, China has been using the global police agency Interpol to target dissidents and had requested for Idris to be added on the agency's most-wanted "alert list." Zeynure claims Turkish officials allowed him board the flight aware he would be arrested upon landing in Morocco.

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

Family Interference

Shortly after learning of her husband's detention, Zeynure received an unexpected phone call from her family in Xinjiang. She had been separated from her family since they visited her in Turkey in 2016 and were jailed for a few months upon their return to China.

Her parents had a chilling warning. "They said, 'We know your husband is not with you. Maybe we can assist you,'" Zeynure explained. "I realized 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 feeding your children,' they told me. 'Don't say anything bad about China.'"

But with her husband's life at risk, the quiet-mannered Zeynure was not going to stay quiet. She had grown up witnessing women having their head coverings forcibly removed in public by the police and had been determined 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 social media or Twitter. But I had to do something to rescue my husband – I had to reveal the reality to the world. Everyone knows Uyghurs deported to China will be tortured or killed. They forced me to speak out."

Childhood in Xinjiang

Zeynure has different types of recollections of her early years in Xinjiang. The first was of blissful days spent in the countryside 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 kind of chance again. The family around the house and land. It was too wonderful, like a scene 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 prohibited from attending the mosque or observing Ramadan.

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

"They aimed for Uyghur people to abandon their religion and culture. They said 'you should trust in us, we gave you jobs and this good living here'," says Zeynure.

She eventually decided to leave China after returning home from college in another part of China to a growing crackdown on beliefs in 2011. It was then that she was connected to Idris by one of her classmates. "She was aware we both had taken the choice to go overseas and told us maybe we could meet and go as a group."

Zeynure says she was right away comforted by Idris. "I saw he was very truthful and shy, and couldn't be dishonest or do anything bad. There were some Uyghur men at university who wanted to marry me, but Idris was different."

A New Life in Turkey

Within two months they were married and ready to leave for a different existence in Turkey. They knew it was an Muslim-majority country with many believers and Uyghurs already residing there, with a similar tongue and shared ethnicity. "It was like Uyghurs' alternative homeland," says Zeynure. As a teacher and designer, they could also help the community in exile. "We have many children now in China growing up without Uyghur traditions or language so we think it's our responsibility to not let it disappear," she says.

But their sense of safety at finding a place of safety abroad was short-lived. Beijing has become a global leader in pursuing dissidents abroad through the use of monitoring, intimidation and violence. But what Idris was subjected to was a more recent tool of repression: using China's increasing financial influence to force other nations to yield to its will, including arresting and deporting Uyghurs it wants to silence.

Fighting for Release

After the call from Idris, and learning he had an Interpol red notice hanging over him, Zeynure knew she only had a limited time of opportunity to try to stop his extradition to China. She immediately reached out to as many Uyghur advocacy organizations as she could find listed online in Europe and the US and pleaded for help. She was brave despite China having already shown a willingness to go after the family members of other targets.

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

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