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In the summer of 2021, Zeynure Hasan was at her residence in Turkey's largest city when she received a desperately anticipated phone call from her husband. It had been four painful days since their last communication, when he was preparing to take a flight to Morocco. The lack of communication had been unbearable.

But the update her husband Idris shared was more alarming. He told her that upon landing in Morocco, he had been arrested and imprisoned. Authorities stated he would be deported to China. "Contact anyone who can help me," he pleaded, before the line went silent.

Existence as Ethnic Minority in Turkey

Zeynure, in her early thirties, and Idris, 37, are members of the Uyghur community, which constitutes about 50% of the population in China's western Xinjiang region. Over the past decade, over a 1,000,000 Uyghurs are estimated to have been imprisoned in alleged "re-education camps," where they faced torture for commonplace actions like attending a mosque or wearing a hijab.

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

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

After settling in Istanbul, Zeynure worked as an English teacher, while Idris began as a interpreter and designer, assisting to produce Uyghur news and publications. They had three children and enjoyed able to practice as followers of Islam.

But when one of Idris's best friends, who was employed in a book repository stocking Uyghur books, was detained in the summer of 2021, Idris became fearful. News indicated that Beijing was pressuring Turkey to deport Uyghurs. Idris felt vulnerable due to his previous arrest, which he believed was connected to his work with activists and promoting Uyghur culture. He decided to escape to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had expired, had to remain with the children until her husband could request a travel document for the whole family.

A Costly Mistake

Leaving Turkey proved to be a disastrous mistake. At the 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 released him, but it felt like a set-up to me," she recalled. Her worst fears were confirmed when he was removed from the plane and detained by Moroccan authorities.

Over the last ten years, China has been using the global police agency Interpol to pursue political refugees and had requested for Idris to be placed on the agency's most-wanted "red notice list." Zeynure says Turkish officials allowed him take the flight aware he would be arrested upon arrival in Morocco.

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

Parental Pressure

Shortly after learning of her husband's detention, 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 jailed for a few months upon their going back to China.

Her parents had a chilling warning. "They told me, 'We know your husband is not with you. Maybe we can assist you,'" Zeynure stated. "I knew there must be some police 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. 'Don't do anything except feeding your children,' they told me. 'Avoid saying anything negative about China.'"

But with her husband's life at risk, the quiet-mannered Zeynure was not going to stay quiet. She had been raised seeing women having their hijabs 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 these platforms. But I had to do something to save 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 speak out."

Growing Up in Xinjiang

Zeynure has different types of memories of her early years in Xinjiang. The first was of blissful days spent in the rural areas with her grandparents, who were farmers. "I'd play with the animals and chickens. I don't know if I will ever have that kind of opportunity again. The relatives around the house and farm. It was too beautiful, like a picture from a book."

The second was as a religious minority in Xinjiang, of school holidays interrupted by mandatory teachings of "communist songs" and being banned from attending the religious site 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 free to practice her faith in Xinjiang. "Individuals who went on religious journey to Mecca in Saudi Arabia were arrested and transferred to prison and told they must have some problem in their mind.

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

She finally decided to leave China after returning home from university in another part of China to a increasing repression on religious freedoms in 2011. It was then that she was connected to Idris by one of her classmates. "She knew 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 right away reassured by Idris. "I realized he was very truthful and reserved, and couldn't be dishonest or do anything wrong. There were some Uyghur men at university who wanted to wed me, but Idris was different."

Fresh Start in Turkey

Within two months they were wed and ready to leave for a different existence in Turkey. They knew it was an Muslim-majority country with many Muslims and Uyghurs already living there, with a similar language and shared ethnicity. "It was like Uyghurs' second home," says Zeynure. As a educator and creative, they could also support the Uyghur population in exile. "We have many kids now in China being raised without Uyghur traditions or dialect so we think it's our responsibility to not let it disappear," she says.

But their sense of safety at finding a place of safety overseas was short-lived. Beijing has become a global leader in targeting dissidents living in exile through the use of monitoring, threats and violence. But what Idris was subjected to was a newer method of control: using China's increasing financial influence to pressure other countries to bend to its demands, including arresting and deporting Uyghurs it wants to suppress.

Fighting for Release

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

Zeynure started demonstrating with her children at the diplomatic mission in Istanbul, and posting updates on online platforms. To her amazement, copycat protests soon occurred in Morocco demanding Idris's freedom. Moroccan officials were forced to issue a announcement saying his extradition was a issue for the courts to decide.

In the start of August 2021, Interpol withdrew Idris's alert 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|