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

But the update her husband Idris revealed was more alarming. He told her that upon arrival in Morocco, he had been taken into custody and imprisoned. Authorities told him he would be extradited to China. "Contact everyone who can assist me," he pleaded, before the line went silent.

Existence as Uyghurs in Turkey

Zeynure, in her early thirties, and Idris, 37, are members of the mostly Muslim community, which makes up about 50% of the residents in China's western Xinjiang province. Over the past decade, over a 1,000,000 Uyghurs are believed to have been detained in so-called "re-education camps," where they faced mistreatment for ordinary acts like going to a place of worship or using a hijab.

The pair had been among many of Uyghurs who fled to Turkey during the 2010s. They believed they would find security in their new home, but soon discovered they were wrong.

"I was told that the Chinese government warned to shut down all its factories in the nation if Morocco freed him," she explained.

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure worked as an language instructor, while Idris began as a translator and artist, helping to publish Uyghur news and publications. They had a family of three kids and felt able to practice as followers of Islam.

But when one of Idris's close friends, who was employed in a book repository containing Uyghur books, was detained in the summer of 2021, Idris became fearful. News indicated that Beijing was urging Turkey to deport Uyghurs. Idris felt at risk due to his prior arrest, which he believed was connected to his work with activists and supporting Uyghur heritage. He decided to escape to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had lapsed, had to stay behind with the children until her husband could apply for a travel document for the whole family.

A Costly Error

Leaving Turkey proved to be a terrible decision. At the Istanbul airport, border control officials pulled him aside for questioning. "When he was finally allowed to board the plane, he told me how happy he was that they had let him go, but it felt like a trap to me," she recalled. Her deepest concerns were confirmed when he was removed from the plane and detained by border officials.

Over the past decade, China has been utilizing the international police agency Interpol to target dissidents and had asked for Idris to be placed on the agency's high-priority "alert 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 dread most: challenge China, despite the risks.

Family Interference

Soon after learning of her husband's detention, Zeynure received 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 several months upon their going back to China.

Her parents had a disturbing warning. "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 acted like I didn't know anything. But they persisted 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 life at stake, the quiet-mannered Zeynure was not going to remain silent. 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 religious freedom.

"Prior to my husband was arrested in Morocco, I didn't do anything. I was just caring for my family; I didn't even have social media or Twitter. But I had to do something to save my husband – I had to reveal the reality to the world. Everyone knows Uyghurs sent to China will be abused or die. 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 grandparents, who were farmers. "I used to play with the sheep and chickens. I don't know if I will ever have that kind of chance again. The relatives around the house and land. It was too beautiful, like a scene from a story."

The second was as a religious minority in Xinjiang, of school holidays interrupted by forced teachings of "political anthems" and being banned from going to the mosque or practicing 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 religious journey to Mecca in Saudi Arabia were arrested and transferred to jail and told they must have some issue in their mind.

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

She eventually decided to leave China after returning home from college in another part of China to a growing repression on religious freedoms in 2011. It was then that she was connected to Idris by one of her classmates. "She was aware we both had made the choice to go abroad 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 honest 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 different."

A New Life in Turkey

Within 60 days they were married and prepared 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 comparable tongue and common ethnicity. "It felt like Uyghurs' alternative homeland," says Zeynure. As a teacher and designer, they could also help the Uyghur population in exile. "We have many kids now in China growing up without Uyghur culture or language so we think it's our responsibility to not let it disappear," she says.

But their sense of safety at locating a place of safety overseas was short-lived. Beijing has become a global leader in targeting critics living in exile through the use of monitoring, intimidation and physical assault. But what Idris was faced was a newer tool of repression: using China's growing financial influence to force other countries to bend to its demands, including detaining and deporting Uyghurs it wants to silence.

Campaigning 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 chance to try to stop his extradition to China. She right away contacted as many Uyghur advocacy organizations as she could find listed on the internet in Europe and the US and begged for help. She was brave despite China having already shown a willingness to go after the relatives of other individuals.

Zeynure started protesting with her children at the diplomatic mission in Istanbul, and sharing information on social media. To her surprise, similar protests soon followed in Morocco demanding Idris's freedom. Moroccan officials were compelled to put out a statement saying his deportation was a matter for the judicial system to determine.

In early August 2021, Interpol cancelled Idris's alert after being urged to review his case by advocacy organizations. But that did not stop 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|