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In the summer of 2021, a Uyghur woman named Zeynure was at her residence in Istanbul when she received a long-awaited phone call from her husband. It had been four stressful days since their last contact, when he was getting ready to board a flight to Morocco. The lack of communication had been torturous.

But the update her husband Idris shared was more alarming. He explained that upon landing in Morocco, he had been detained and jailed. Authorities informed him he would be sent back to China. "Reach out to anyone who can rescue me," he urged, before the line went silent.

Life as Ethnic Minority in Turkey

Zeynure, 31 years old, and Idris, in his late thirties, are part of the Uyghur ethnic group, which makes up about 50% of the population in China's north-western Xinjiang region. Over the last ten years, more than a million Uyghurs are believed to have been imprisoned in so-called "re-education camps," where they faced torture for ordinary actions like going to a mosque or wearing a headscarf.

The pair had been among thousands of Uyghurs who fled to Turkey during the previous decade. They hoped they would find safety in exile, but quickly found they were mistaken.

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

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure worked as an English teacher, while Idris started as a translator and designer, assisting to publish Uyghur news and printed works. They had three children and enjoyed able to practice as followers of Islam.

But when one of Idris's close friends, who was employed in a library containing Uyghur books, was arrested in the mid-year of 2021, Idris became fearful. Reports indicated that Beijing was urging Turkey to deport Uyghurs. Idris felt at risk due to his prior arrest, which he believed was linked to his work with advocates and promoting Uyghur heritage. He decided to flee 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 whole family.

A Terrible Mistake

Leaving Turkey turned out to be a terrible mistake. At the Istanbul airport, immigration officials pulled him aside for interrogation. "When he was finally allowed to board the plane, he told me how relieved he was that they had let him go, but it felt like a set-up to me," Zeynure said. Her worst fears were realized when he was removed from the plane and arrested by Moroccan authorities.

Over the past decade, China has been utilizing the international police agency Interpol to pursue dissidents and had requested for Idris to be placed on the agency's most-wanted "red notice list." Zeynure claims Turkish officials allowed him board the flight aware he would be apprehended upon landing in Morocco.

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

Parental Pressure

Shortly after hearing of her husband's arrest, Zeynure got an unexpected phone call from her parents in Xinjiang. She had been cut off from her family since they visited her in Turkey in 2016 and were imprisoned for several 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 assist you,'" she 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. 'Avoid doing anything except caring for your children,' they told me. 'Don't say anything bad about China.'"

But with her husband's safety at risk, the quiet-mannered Zeynure was not going to stay quiet. She had grown up seeing women having their head coverings ripped off in public by the authorities 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 caring for 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 world. Everyone knows Uyghurs deported to China will be abused or killed. They pushed me to raise my voice."

Childhood in Xinjiang

Zeynure has different types of recollections of her childhood in Xinjiang. The first was of happy days spent in the rural areas with her elders, who were agricultural workers. "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 land. 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 mandatory teachings of "political anthems" and being banned from going to the religious site or observing Ramadan.

China says it is tackling radicalism through 'managing illegal religious activities' and 'vocational education facilities', but other countries, including the US, say its actions constitute genocide. Zeynure says she never felt free to practice her religious beliefs in Xinjiang. "Individuals who went on pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia were arrested and transferred to jail and told they must have some problem in their brain.

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

She finally decided to depart China after returning home from university in Eastern China to a increasing crackdown 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 taken the decision to go abroad and told us maybe we could meet and go as a group."

Zeynure says she was immediately comforted by Idris. "I saw he was very honest and shy, and couldn't tell lies or do anything wrong. There were some Uyghur men at university who wanted to wed me, but Idris was different."

A New Life in Turkey

Within two months they were wed and prepared to move for a different existence in Turkey. They knew it was an Muslim-majority 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 creative, they could also help the Uyghur population in diaspora. "There are many children now in China being raised without Uyghur culture or dialect so we think it's our duty to not let it die out," she says.

But their relief at locating a place of safety abroad was temporary. Beijing has become a prominent force in targeting dissidents abroad through the use of electronic surveillance, threats and physical assault. But what Idris was faced was a newer method of repression: using China's growing economic leverage to pressure other countries to bend to its will, including detaining and extraditing Uyghurs it wants to silence.

Fighting for Release

After the phone call from Idris, and learning he had an Interpol alert against him, Zeynure knew she only had a limited time of opportunity to try to stop his deportation to China. She right away reached out to as many Uyghur advocacy organizations as she could find advertised on the internet in Europe and the US and pleaded for assistance. She was brave despite China having already demonstrated a readiness to target the relatives of other targets.

Zeynure started protesting with her children at the Moroccan embassy in Istanbul, and posting updates on online platforms. To her surprise, similar protests soon followed in Morocco calling for Idris's release. Moroccan officials were forced to put out a statement saying his extradition was a matter for the courts to determine.

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