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In the summer of 2021, a Uyghur woman named Zeynure was at her home in Turkey's largest city when she got a desperately anticipated phone call from her husband. It had been four painful days since their last contact, when he was preparing to take a flight to Morocco. The silence had been difficult.

But the update her husband Idris shared was more devastating. He explained that upon landing in Morocco, he had been arrested and imprisoned. Authorities stated he would be sent back to China. "Call everyone who can rescue me," he said, before the line went silent.

Life as Uyghurs in Turkey

Zeynure, in her early thirties, and Idris, in his late thirties, are part of the mostly Muslim community, which constitutes about 50% of the residents in China's western Xinjiang province. Over the last ten years, more than a 1,000,000 Uyghurs are believed to have been detained in alleged "re-education camps," where they faced torture for commonplace acts like attending a mosque or using a headscarf.

The pair had been among many of Uyghurs who fled to Turkey during the 2010s. They believed they would find security in exile, but quickly found they were wrong.

"I was told that the Chinese government warned to close all its industrial plants in the country if Morocco released him," Zeynure explained.

After settling in Istanbul, Zeynure became an language instructor, while Idris started as a translator and artist, assisting to publish Uyghur media and printed works. They had a family of three kids and enjoyed able to live as Muslims.

But when one of Idris's best friends, who worked in a library containing Uyghur books, was detained in the mid-year of 2021, Idris panicked. Reports indicated that Beijing was pressuring Turkey to deport Uyghurs. Idris felt vulnerable due to his prior detention, which he believed was connected to his work with advocates and supporting Uyghur culture. He chose to flee 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 family.

A Terrible Mistake

Leaving Turkey turned out to be a terrible mistake. At the Istanbul airport, immigration officials took Idris aside for questioning. "After 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 taken off the plane and arrested by Moroccan authorities.

Over the last ten years, China has been utilizing the international police agency Interpol to pursue dissidents and had requested for Idris to be added on the agency's high-priority "alert list." Zeynure says Turkish officials allowed him board the flight aware he would be arrested upon arrival in Morocco.

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

Parental Interference

Shortly after learning of her husband's arrest, Zeynure got an surprising phone call from her parents in Xinjiang. She had been cut off from her relatives since they came to see her in Turkey in 2016 and were imprisoned for several months upon their going back to China.

Her parents had a chilling warning. "They said, 'We know your husband is not with you. Maybe we can assist you,'" Zeynure stated. "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. 'Don't do anything except caring for your children,' they told me. 'Don't say anything negative about China.'"

But with her husband's life at stake, the softly spoken Zeynure was not going to stay quiet. She had grown up witnessing women having their hijabs forcibly removed in open by the authorities and had been resolved to live in a country with freedom of belief.

"Prior to 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 rescue my husband – I had to reveal the reality to the international community. Everyone knows Uyghurs sent to China will be abused or killed. They pushed me to raise my voice."

Growing Up in Xinjiang

Zeynure has two distinct types of recollections of her early years in Xinjiang. The first was of happy days spent in the rural areas with her elders, who were agricultural workers. "I used to play with the sheep and chickens. I don't know if I will ever have that type of chance again. The family around the house and land. It was too beautiful, like a picture from a book."

The second was as a Muslim Uyghur in Xinjiang, of school holidays interrupted by forced teachings of "communist songs" and being prohibited from attending the religious site or observing Ramadan.

China claims it is tackling radicalism through 'managing illegal religious activities' and 'training centers', but other nations, including the US, say its actions amount to ethnic cleansing. Zeynure says she never felt able to practice her religious beliefs in Xinjiang. "People who went on pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia were detained and transferred to jail and told they must have some problem in their brain.

"They aimed for Uyghur people to forget their religion and heritage. They said 'you should trust in us, we provided you jobs and this good life here'," says Zeynure.

She eventually decided to depart China after returning home from college in Eastern China to a increasing repression on beliefs in 2011. It was then that she was introduced to Idris by one of her school friends. "She knew we both had taken the choice to go abroad and told us perhaps we could get together and go as a group."

Zeynure says she was right away reassured by Idris. "I realized 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 marry me, but Idris was unique."

Fresh Start 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 living there, with a similar tongue and shared background. "It was like Uyghurs' alternative homeland," says Zeynure. As a teacher and designer, they could also support the Uyghur population in exile. "We have many children now in China being raised without Uyghur traditions or dialect so we think it's our duty to not let it disappear," she says.

But their relief at finding a place of safety abroad was short-lived. Beijing has become a global leader in pursuing critics living in exile through the use of electronic surveillance, intimidation and violence. But what Idris was faced was a newer tool of repression: using China's increasing economic leverage to force other countries to yield to its will, including arresting and deporting Uyghurs it wants to suppress.

Campaigning for Release

After the call from Idris, and learning he had an Interpol alert hanging over him, Zeynure knew she only had a limited time of chance 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 the EU and the US and begged for assistance. She was fearless despite China having already demonstrated a readiness to go after the family members of other targets.

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

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