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In July 2021, Zeynure Hasan was at her home 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 communication, when he was preparing to take a flight to Morocco. The lack of communication had been unbearable.

But the information her husband Idris shared was more alarming. He told her that upon landing in Morocco, he had been detained and jailed. Authorities stated he would be sent back to China. "Contact everyone who can help me," he pleaded, before the line went silent.

Existence as Ethnic Minority in Exile

Zeynure, 31 years old, and Idris, in his late thirties, are members of the mostly Muslim ethnic group, which constitutes about 50% of the population in China's north-western Xinjiang province. Over the past decade, over a 1,000,000 Uyghurs are estimated to have been imprisoned in alleged "vocational training camps," where they faced abuse for commonplace actions like going to a mosque or using a hijab.

The couple had been among thousands of Uyghurs who escaped to Turkey during the previous decade. They hoped they would find refuge in their new home, but quickly realized they were mistaken.

"I was told that the Chinese government warned to close all its factories in the country if Morocco released him," Zeynure stated.

After settling in Istanbul, Zeynure became an English teacher, while Idris started as a interpreter and artist, assisting to publish Uyghur media and publications. They had a family of three kids and enjoyed able to live as followers of Islam.

But when one of Idris's best friends, who worked in a book repository stocking Uyghur books, was arrested in the summer of 2021, Idris panicked. News indicated that Beijing was urging Turkey to deport Uyghurs. Idris felt at risk due to his previous detention, which he believed was connected to his work with advocates and promoting Uyghur culture. 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 Terrible Error

Leaving Turkey turned out 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 released him, but it felt like a set-up to me," Zeynure recalled. Her worst fears were realized when he was taken off the plane and arrested by border officials.

Over the past decade, China has been using the global police agency Interpol to target dissidents and had requested for Idris to be placed on the agency's high-priority "alert list." Zeynure claims Turkish officials let him take 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.

Family Pressure

Shortly after hearing of her husband's detention, Zeynure got an surprising phone call from her parents in Xinjiang. She had been cut off from her relatives since they visited her in Turkey in 2016 and were jailed for several months upon their going back to China.

Her parents had a chilling message. "They told me, 'We know your husband is not with you. Maybe we can help you,'" Zeynure stated. "I realized 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. '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 remain silent. She had been raised witnessing women having their head coverings forcibly removed in public by the police 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 looking after 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 international community. Everyone knows Uyghurs sent to China will be abused or die. They forced me to raise my voice."

Childhood in Xinjiang

Zeynure has different types of memories of her childhood in Xinjiang. The first was of blissful days spent in the rural areas with her elders, who were agricultural workers. "I used to 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 picture from a story."

The second was as a Muslim Uyghur in Xinjiang, of vacations interrupted by forced teachings of "political anthems" and being banned from attending the religious site or practicing Ramadan.

China claims it is tackling extremism through 'controlling illegal religious activities' and 'vocational education 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 sent to prison and told they must have some issue in their mind.

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

She eventually decided to depart China after coming back 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 school friends. "She was aware we both had made the decision to go overseas 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 reserved, and couldn't be dishonest or do anything bad. There were some Uyghur men at university who wanted to marry me, but Idris was different."

Fresh Start in Turkey

Within two months they were wed and prepared to move for a new life in Turkey. They knew it was an Islamic country with many believers and Uyghurs already residing there, with a similar tongue and shared background. "It was like Uyghurs' alternative homeland," says Zeynure. As a teacher and designer, they could also help the Uyghur population in diaspora. "There are many kids now in China growing up without Uyghur traditions or language so we think it's our duty to not let it die out," she says.

But their sense of safety at locating a place of safety abroad was temporary. Beijing has become a global leader in pursuing critics living in exile through the use of monitoring, intimidation and physical assault. But what Idris was subjected to was a more recent method of control: using China's increasing economic leverage to force other countries to bend to its will, including arresting and deporting Uyghurs it wants to silence.

Campaigning for Freedom

After the phone call from Idris, and learning he had an Interpol alert hanging over him, Zeynure knew she only had a limited time of opportunity to try to stop his extradition to China. She immediately contacted as many Uyghur advocacy organizations 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 go after the family members of other targets.

Zeynure started demonstrating with her children at the diplomatic mission in Istanbul, and posting updates on social media. To her amazement, similar protests soon occurred in Morocco calling for Idris's freedom. Moroccan officials were forced to put out a announcement saying his extradition was a matter for the judicial system to decide.

In the start of August 2021, Interpol cancelled Idris's alert after being pressed to review his case by human rights groups. But that did not prevent a Moroccan court later ruling he should still be sent back to China. Zeynure says there was significant diplomatic pressure from Beijing, which made {little sense|