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In July 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 agonizing days since their last communication, when he was preparing to board a flight to Morocco. The silence had been difficult.

But the news her husband Idris delivered was even worse. 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. "Call everyone who can help me," he urged, before the line went silent.

Existence as Uyghurs in Turkey

The wife, 31 years old, and Idris, in his late thirties, are part of the mostly Muslim community, which makes up about half of the residents in China's western Xinjiang province. Over the past decade, more than a million Uyghurs are reported to have been detained in so-called "vocational training camps," where they faced torture for ordinary actions like going to a mosque or wearing a hijab.

The couple had joined many of Uyghurs who escaped to Turkey during the 2010s. They thought they would find refuge in exile, but soon realized they were mistaken.

"I was told that the Beijing officials threatened to close all its factories in the nation if Morocco freed him," Zeynure stated.

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure worked as an language instructor, while Idris started as a interpreter and designer, helping to publish Uyghur media and publications. They had three children and enjoyed able to live as Muslims.

But when one of Idris's best friends, who was employed in a book repository containing Uyghur books, was detained in the summer of 2021, Idris became fearful. Reports indicated that Beijing was pressuring Turkey to extradite Uyghurs. Idris felt vulnerable due to his prior arrest, which he believed was linked to his work with advocates and supporting Uyghur culture. 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 travel document for the family.

A Costly Mistake

Leaving Turkey proved to be a terrible mistake. At the airport, border control officials took Idris aside for questioning. "After he was finally permitted to board the plane, he told me how relieved he was that they had released him, but it felt like a trap to me," Zeynure recalled. Her worst fears were confirmed when he was removed from the plane and arrested by border officials.

Over the past decade, China has been using the global police agency Interpol to target political refugees 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 arrested upon landing in Morocco.

What happened next would lead her to do what many Uyghurs fear most: challenge China, regardless of the risks.

Family Interference

Soon after hearing of her husband's detention, Zeynure got an surprising phone call from her parents in Xinjiang. She had been separated from her family since they visited her in Turkey in 2016 and were imprisoned for a few months upon their going back to China.

Her parents had a chilling message. "They said, 'We know your husband is not with you. Maybe we can help you,'" she explained. "I knew 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 feeding your children,' they told me. 'Avoid saying anything negative about China.'"

But with her husband's life at stake, the softly spoken Zeynure was not going to stay quiet. She had been raised witnessing women having their hijabs ripped off in public 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 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 truth to the world. Everyone knows Uyghurs deported to China will be tortured or killed. They pushed me to raise my voice."

Growing Up in Xinjiang

Zeynure has two distinct 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 sheep and poultry. I don't know if I will ever have that kind of opportunity again. The relatives around the house and farm. It was too wonderful, like a scene from a story."

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

China says it is addressing radicalism through 'managing unauthorized religious activities' and 'training facilities', but other nations, including the US, say its actions amount to genocide. Zeynure says she never felt free to practice her religious beliefs in Xinjiang. "People who went on religious journey to Mecca in Saudi Arabia were arrested and sent to prison and told they must have some issue in their mind.

"They wanted Uyghur people to forget their religion and heritage. They said 'you should believe in us, we gave you employment and this beautiful living here'," says Zeynure.

She finally decided to depart China after returning home from university in another part of China to a growing repression on beliefs in 2011. It was then that she was connected to Idris by one of her school friends. "She knew we both had taken the choice to go overseas and told us maybe we could meet and go as a group."

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

A New Life in Turkey

Within 60 days they were wed and prepared to leave 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 shared ethnicity. "It was like Uyghurs' second home," says Zeynure. As a teacher and designer, they could also support the community in diaspora. "There are many kids now in China being raised without Uyghur traditions or dialect so we think it's our responsibility to not let it die out," she says.

But their relief at locating a place of safety overseas was temporary. Beijing has become a global leader in pursuing critics abroad through the use of electronic surveillance, threats and violence. But what Idris was faced was a newer tool of control: using China's increasing economic leverage to pressure other countries to yield to its will, including arresting and extraditing Uyghurs it wants to suppress.

Campaigning for Freedom

After the phone call from Idris, and learning he had an Interpol red notice 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 advertised online in the EU and the US and pleaded for help. She was fearless despite China having already demonstrated a willingness to target the relatives of other targets.

Zeynure started protesting with her children at the Moroccan embassy in Istanbul, and sharing updates on social media. To her amazement, copycat protests soon followed in Morocco calling for Idris's release. Moroccan officials were forced to put out a statement saying his extradition was a issue for the courts to decide.

In the start of August 2021, Interpol withdrew Idris's red notice after being urged to reexamine 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 huge political influence from Beijing, which made {little sense|