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In the summer of 2021, Zeynure Hasan was at her residence in Turkey's largest city when she answered a long-awaited phone call from her husband. There had been four stressful days since their last contact, when he was preparing to board a flight to Casablanca. The lack of communication had been unbearable.

But the update her husband Idris shared was even worse. He explained that upon arrival in Morocco, he had been taken into custody and jailed. Authorities told him he would be extradited to China. "Reach out to everyone who can assist me," he said, before the line went dead.

Existence as Ethnic Minority in Exile

The wife, in her early thirties, and Idris, 37, are members of the mostly Muslim ethnic group, which makes up about half of the population in China's western Xinjiang region. Over the past decade, over a 1,000,000 Uyghurs are reported to have been detained in so-called "re-education camps," where they faced mistreatment for ordinary actions like attending a mosque or wearing a headscarf.

The couple had joined thousands of Uyghurs who fled to Turkey during the 2010s. They hoped they would find refuge in their new home, but quickly discovered they were mistaken.

"Authorities informed me that the Chinese government threatened to shut down all its factories in the country if Morocco freed him," she explained.

After settling in Istanbul, Zeynure became an language instructor, while Idris began as a translator and designer, helping to publish Uyghur media and printed works. They had three children and felt free to practice as Muslims.

But when one of Idris's best friends, who was employed in a library containing Uyghur books, was arrested in the summer of 2021, Idris became fearful. News indicated that Beijing was urging Turkey to deport Uyghurs. Idris felt vulnerable due to his prior arrest, which he believed was linked to his work with activists and promoting Uyghur heritage. He decided to escape to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had expired, had to stay behind with the children until her husband could apply for a visa for the family.

A Terrible Mistake

Departing Turkey proved to be a terrible mistake. At the airport, immigration officials took Idris aside for interrogation. "After he was finally allowed to get on 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 recalled. Her deepest concerns were confirmed when he was taken off the plane and detained by border officials.

Over the last ten years, China has been utilizing the international police agency Interpol to pursue political refugees and had asked for Idris to be added on the agency's most-wanted "red notice list." Zeynure says Turkish officials let him board the flight aware he would be arrested upon landing in Morocco.

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

Parental Pressure

Soon after hearing of her husband's arrest, Zeynure received an surprising phone call from her family in Xinjiang. She had been separated from her family since they came to see her in Turkey in 2016 and were jailed for a few months upon their return to China.

Her parents had a disturbing warning. "They told me, 'We know your husband is not with you. Perhaps we can assist you,'" Zeynure explained. "I realized there must be some police 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. 'Avoid saying anything bad about China.'"

But with her husband's safety at stake, the quiet-mannered Zeynure was not going to stay quiet. She had been raised seeing women having their head coverings forcibly removed in open by the police and had been determined 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 truth to the international community. Everyone knows Uyghurs sent to China will be abused 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 elders, who were farmers. "I'd play with the sheep and chickens. I don't know if I will ever have that kind of opportunity again. The family around the home and land. It was too wonderful, like a picture from a book."

The second was as a religious minority in Xinjiang, of vacations cut short by mandatory teachings of "political anthems" and being banned from going to the mosque or practicing Ramadan.

China claims it is addressing radicalism through 'managing unauthorized religious activities' and 'vocational education facilities', but other countries, including the US, say its actions amount to ethnic cleansing. Zeynure says she never felt free to practice her religious beliefs in Xinjiang. "Individuals who went on pilgrimage to Mecca abroad were arrested and sent to jail and told they must have some issue in their mind.

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

She finally decided to depart China after returning home from university in Eastern 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 choice to go overseas and told us perhaps we could get together and go as a group."

Zeynure says she was immediately comforted by Idris. "I realized 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 unique."

A New Life in Turkey

Within two months they were married and ready to move for a different existence in Turkey. They knew it was an Muslim-majority country with many Muslims and Uyghurs already living there, with a comparable tongue and common ethnicity. "It felt like Uyghurs' alternative homeland," says Zeynure. As a educator and creative, they could also support the Uyghur population in exile. "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 finding a secure location abroad was temporary. Beijing has become a global leader in targeting 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 growing economic leverage to force other nations to yield to its will, including detaining and deporting Uyghurs it wants to suppress.

Fighting for Release

After the phone call from Idris, and discovering he had an Interpol alert against him, Zeynure knew she only had a limited time of chance to try to prevent his deportation to China. She immediately contacted as many Uyghur support groups as she could find listed on the internet in Europe and the US and begged for help. She was fearless despite China having already demonstrated a willingness to go after the family members of other targets.

Zeynure started protesting with her children at the Moroccan embassy in Istanbul, and posting updates on social media. To her amazement, copycat protests soon occurred in Morocco calling for Idris's freedom. Moroccan officials were compelled to issue a announcement saying his deportation was a issue 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 prevent a Moroccan court later deciding he should still be sent back to China. Zeynure says there was significant political influence from Beijing, which made {little sense|