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In July 2021, Zeynure Hasan was at her home in Turkey's largest city when she answered a desperately anticipated phone call from her husband. There had been four stressful days since their last communication, when he was getting ready to take a flight to Casablanca. The silence had been torturous.

But the update her husband Idris revealed was more devastating. He informed her that upon arrival in Morocco, he had been detained and imprisoned. Authorities informed him he would be deported to China. "Contact everyone who can rescue me," he said, before the line went silent.

Life as Ethnic Minority in Turkey

Zeynure, in her early thirties, and Idris, in his late thirties, are members of the mostly Muslim ethnic group, which constitutes about 50% of the population in China's western Xinjiang province. Over the past decade, over a 1,000,000 Uyghurs are estimated to have been detained in alleged "re-education camps," where they faced torture for commonplace acts like attending a place of worship or using a headscarf.

The pair had joined thousands of Uyghurs who fled to Turkey during the previous decade. They believed they would find security in exile, but quickly found they were mistaken.

"Authorities informed me that the Beijing officials warned to shut down all its industrial plants in the country if Morocco freed him," she explained.

After settling in Istanbul, Zeynure became an English teacher, while Idris began as a interpreter and artist, assisting to produce Uyghur media and printed works. They had a family of three kids and enjoyed free to practice 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 panicked. Reports indicated that Beijing was urging Turkey to extradite Uyghurs. Idris felt vulnerable due to his previous detention, which he believed was connected to his work with advocates and promoting Uyghur heritage. He decided to flee to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had expired, had to remain with the children until her husband could apply for a visa for the whole family.

A Costly Error

Leaving Turkey turned out to be a disastrous decision. At the airport, border control officials pulled him aside for interrogation. "After he was finally permitted to get on 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 taken off the plane and detained by Moroccan authorities.

Over the past decade, China has been using the global police agency Interpol to target political refugees and had requested for Idris to be placed on the agency's most-wanted "alert list." Zeynure says Turkish officials allowed him take the flight knowing he would be apprehended upon arrival in Morocco.

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

Parental Interference

Shortly after learning of her husband's detention, Zeynure got an surprising phone call from her family in Xinjiang. She had been separated from her relatives since they visited her in Turkey in 2016 and were imprisoned for a few months upon their going back to China.

Her parents had a disturbing message. "They told me, 'We know your husband is not with you. Maybe we can help you,'" she stated. "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 caring for 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 remain silent. She had grown up witnessing women having their head coverings ripped off in public by the police and had been resolved 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 Facebook 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 killed. They forced me to speak out."

Growing Up in Xinjiang

Zeynure has different types of recollections of her childhood in Xinjiang. The first was of blissful days spent in the rural areas with her grandparents, who were farmers. "I used to play with the animals and poultry. I don't know if I will ever have that type of chance again. The family around the house and farm. It was too wonderful, like a scene from a book."

The second was as a religious minority in Xinjiang, of vacations interrupted by forced teachings of "political anthems" and being banned from attending the religious site or practicing Ramadan.

China says it is tackling radicalism through 'managing illegal religious activities' and 'vocational education facilities', but other nations, including the US, say its actions constitute ethnic cleansing. Zeynure says she never felt free to follow her faith in Xinjiang. "Individuals who went on religious journey to Mecca abroad were detained and transferred to prison and told they must have some problem in their mind.

"They aimed for Uyghur people to abandon their religion and heritage. They said 'you should trust in us, we gave you employment and this beautiful life here'," says Zeynure.

She finally decided to leave China after coming back home from college in another part of China to a growing repression on beliefs in 2011. It was then that she was introduced to Idris by one of her classmates. "She knew we both had made the decision to go abroad 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 reserved, and couldn't be dishonest or do anything wrong. There were some Uyghur boys at university who wanted to wed me, but Idris was unique."

A New Life in Turkey

Within 60 days they were wed and ready to move for a new life in Turkey. They knew it was an Islamic country with many Muslims and Uyghurs already residing there, with a similar language and common background. "It was like Uyghurs' alternative homeland," says Zeynure. As a educator and designer, they could also support the community in exile. "We have many kids 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 relief at finding a place of safety abroad was short-lived. Beijing has become a prominent force in pursuing dissidents living in exile through the use of monitoring, threats and violence. But what Idris was faced was a more recent tool of control: using China's growing financial influence to pressure other nations to yield to its will, including detaining and extraditing Uyghurs it wants to suppress.

Fighting for Freedom

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 chance to try to stop his deportation to China. She right away contacted as many Uyghur support groups as she could find advertised on the internet in the EU and the US and begged for help. She was brave 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 surprise, similar protests soon occurred in Morocco calling for Idris's release. Moroccan officials were compelled to issue a announcement saying his extradition was a issue for the courts to determine.

In early August 2021, Interpol withdrew Idris's alert after being pressed to review 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|