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In July 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 take a flight to Casablanca. The silence had been unbearable.

But the update her husband Idris shared was more alarming. He informed her that upon arrival in Morocco, he had been taken into custody and jailed. Authorities stated he would be deported to China. "Reach out to everyone who can help me," he urged, before the line went dead.

Existence as Uyghurs in Turkey

The wife, 31 years old, and Idris, 37, are members of the Uyghur community, which makes up about half of the population in China's north-western Xinjiang province. Over the past decade, over a 1,000,000 Uyghurs are reported to have been detained in alleged "vocational training camps," where they faced abuse for ordinary actions like attending a place of worship or wearing a hijab.

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

"I was told that the Beijing officials warned to close all its factories in the nation if Morocco released him," Zeynure explained.

After settling in Istanbul, Zeynure worked as an language instructor, while Idris began as a interpreter and artist, helping to publish Uyghur news and printed works. They had three children and felt able to practice as followers of Islam.

But when one of Idris's best friends, who was employed in a book repository containing Uyghur books, was arrested in the mid-year of 2021, Idris panicked. News indicated that Beijing was pressuring Turkey to extradite Uyghurs. Idris felt vulnerable due to his previous arrest, which he suspected was linked to his work with activists and supporting Uyghur heritage. He decided to flee 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 family.

A Costly Mistake

Leaving Turkey proved to be a terrible mistake. At the Istanbul airport, immigration officials took Idris aside for questioning. "When he was eventually permitted 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," she said. Her deepest concerns were confirmed when he was taken off the plane and detained by Moroccan authorities.

Over the last ten years, China has been utilizing the global police agency Interpol to target political refugees 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 arrested upon landing in Morocco.

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

Parental Interference

Soon after learning of her husband's arrest, Zeynure got an surprising phone call from her parents in Xinjiang. She had been cut off from her relatives since they came to see her in Turkey in 2016 and were jailed for several months upon their return to China.

Her parents had a disturbing message. "They said, 'We know your husband is not with you. Maybe we can assist you,'" she explained. "I knew 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 feeding 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 remain silent. She had been raised witnessing women having their head coverings ripped off in open by the authorities and had been resolved to live in a country with religious freedom.

"Before 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 tell the truth to the international community. Everyone knows Uyghurs deported to China will be abused or die. 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 blissful days spent in the countryside with her grandparents, who were farmers. "I'd play with the sheep and chickens. 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 picture from a story."

The second was as a Muslim Uyghur in Xinjiang, of school holidays cut short by mandatory teachings of "political anthems" and being banned from attending the mosque or observing Ramadan.

China claims it is addressing extremism through 'managing unauthorized religious activities' and 'training centers', but other countries, including the US, say its actions amount to genocide. Zeynure says she never felt free to follow her faith in Xinjiang. "Individuals who went on pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia were detained and transferred 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 beautiful life here'," says Zeynure.

She eventually decided to depart China after coming back home from university in another part of China to a growing crackdown on religious freedoms in 2011. It was then that she was connected to Idris by one of her school friends. "She was aware we both had taken the choice to go abroad and told us maybe we could meet and go together."

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 wed me, but Idris was different."

A New Life in Turkey

Within 60 days they were married and ready 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 language and shared ethnicity. "It felt like Uyghurs' second home," says Zeynure. As a teacher and creative, they could also support the Uyghur population in diaspora. "We have many kids 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 sense of safety at locating a secure location abroad was temporary. Beijing has become a global leader in targeting dissidents abroad through the use of electronic surveillance, intimidation and violence. But what Idris was faced was a more recent tool of control: using China's increasing financial influence to pressure other nations to yield to its demands, including arresting and deporting Uyghurs it wants to suppress.

Fighting for Release

After the call from Idris, and discovering he had an Interpol red notice hanging over him, Zeynure knew she only had a short window of chance to try to stop his extradition to China. She right away contacted as many Uyghur advocacy organizations as she could find advertised online in Europe and the US and begged for assistance. She was brave despite China having already demonstrated a readiness to target the relatives of other targets.

Zeynure started demonstrating with her children at the Moroccan embassy in Istanbul, and sharing updates on online platforms. To her surprise, copycat protests soon followed in Morocco calling for Idris's release. Moroccan officials were forced to put out a statement saying his deportation was a matter for the judicial system to decide.

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 huge diplomatic pressure from Beijing, which made {little sense|