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In July 2021, Zeynure Hasan was at her residence in Turkey's largest city when she answered a desperately anticipated phone call from her husband. It 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 even worse. He explained that upon arrival in Morocco, he had been arrested and imprisoned. Authorities informed him he would be deported to China. "Call everyone who can rescue me," he pleaded, before the line went silent.

Life as Ethnic Minority in Exile

Zeynure, in her early thirties, and Idris, in his late thirties, are part of the Uyghur community, which makes up about 50% of the population in China's north-western Xinjiang province. Over the last ten years, more than a million Uyghurs are believed to have been detained in alleged "vocational training camps," where they faced torture for ordinary actions like going to a place of worship or wearing a hijab.

The pair had joined many of Uyghurs who fled to Turkey during the previous decade. They hoped they would find security in their new home, but soon discovered they were mistaken.

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

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure worked as an language instructor, while Idris started as a translator and designer, assisting to publish Uyghur news and publications. They had a family of three kids and enjoyed free to practice as followers of Islam.

But when one of Idris's close friends, who worked in a book repository containing Uyghur books, was detained in the summer of 2021, Idris became fearful. News indicated that Beijing was pressuring Turkey to deport Uyghurs. Idris felt at risk due to his prior detention, which he suspected was connected to his work with advocates and promoting Uyghur heritage. He decided 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 Error

Departing Turkey turned out to be a terrible mistake. At the airport, border control officials pulled him aside for interrogation. "After he was eventually allowed 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," Zeynure recalled. Her worst fears were realized when he was removed from the plane and arrested by border officials.

Over the past decade, China has been utilizing the global police agency Interpol to target dissidents and had asked for Idris to be placed on the agency's most-wanted "red notice list." Zeynure says Turkish officials let him board the flight knowing 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 Pressure

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 going back to China.

Her parents had a chilling message. "They said, 'We know your husband is not with you. Maybe we can assist you,'" Zeynure explained. "I knew 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. 'Avoid doing anything except feeding your children,' they told me. 'Avoid saying anything bad about China.'"

But with her husband's life at risk, the softly spoken Zeynure was not going to stay quiet. She had been raised witnessing women having their head coverings ripped off in public by the police 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 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 reality to the world. Everyone knows Uyghurs deported to China will be abused or die. They pushed me to speak out."

Childhood in Xinjiang

Zeynure has two distinct types of memories of her childhood 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 house and farm. It was too beautiful, like a scene from a book."

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

China claims it is tackling extremism through 'managing illegal religious activities' and 'vocational education facilities', but other countries, including the US, say its actions amount to genocide. Zeynure says she never felt able to follow her religious beliefs in Xinjiang. "Individuals who went on pilgrimage to Mecca abroad were detained and transferred to prison and told they must have some issue in their brain.

"They wanted Uyghur people to forget their religion and culture. They said 'you should believe in us, we gave you jobs and this good life here'," says Zeynure.

She eventually decided to leave China after returning home from college in another part of China to a increasing crackdown on religious freedoms in 2011. It was then that she was connected to Idris by one of her school friends. "She was aware we both had made the decision to go overseas and told us perhaps we could get together and go as a group."

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 boys at university who wanted to marry me, but Idris was unique."

A New Life in Turkey

Within 60 days they were wed and ready to leave for a different existence in Turkey. They knew it was an Islamic country with many believers and Uyghurs already residing there, with a comparable language and common ethnicity. "It felt like Uyghurs' alternative homeland," says Zeynure. As a educator and creative, they could also help the Uyghur population in exile. "There are many kids now in China being raised without Uyghur traditions or dialect so we think it's our responsibility to not let it die out," she says.

But their relief at locating a place of safety abroad was short-lived. Beijing has become a global leader in pursuing dissidents abroad 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 economic leverage to pressure other nations to yield to its will, including arresting and deporting Uyghurs it wants to silence.

Campaigning for Release

After the phone call from Idris, and learning he had an Interpol red notice against him, Zeynure knew she only had a limited time of opportunity to try to stop his extradition to China. She immediately contacted as many Uyghur advocacy organizations as she could find listed on the internet in the EU and the US and pleaded for assistance. She was fearless despite China having already demonstrated a willingness to go after the relatives of other targets.

Zeynure started protesting with her children at the diplomatic mission in Istanbul, and sharing updates on social media. To her amazement, copycat protests soon followed in Morocco calling for Idris's release. Moroccan officials were forced to issue a announcement saying his extradition was a matter for the judicial system to determine.

In early August 2021, Interpol withdrew Idris's alert after being urged to review his case by advocacy organizations. But that did not prevent a Moroccan court later ruling he should still be sent back to China. Zeynure says there was significant diplomatic pressure from Beijing, which made {little sense|