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In July 2021, a Uyghur woman named Zeynure was at her residence in Istanbul when she got a long-awaited phone call from her husband. It had been four painful days since their last communication, when he was getting ready to board a flight to Casablanca. The lack of communication had been unbearable.

But the news her husband Idris revealed was more alarming. He explained that upon landing in Morocco, he had been detained and jailed. Authorities informed him he would be deported to China. "Reach out to anyone who can help me," he said, before the line went dead.

Existence as Ethnic Minority in Turkey

Zeynure, in her early thirties, and Idris, in his late thirties, are members of the mostly Muslim community, which makes up about half of the residents in China's north-western Xinjiang province. Over the last ten years, over a 1,000,000 Uyghurs are reported to have been imprisoned in alleged "vocational training camps," where they faced mistreatment for ordinary actions like going to a place of worship or using a hijab.

The couple had joined many of Uyghurs who escaped to Turkey during the 2010s. They hoped they would find refuge in their new home, but soon found they were mistaken.

"Authorities informed me that the Beijing officials threatened to close all its factories in the nation if Morocco freed him," Zeynure said.

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure became an English teacher, while Idris began as a interpreter and artist, helping to publish Uyghur news and publications. They had three children and felt free 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. Reports indicated that Beijing was pressuring Turkey to extradite Uyghurs. Idris felt at risk due to his prior arrest, which he believed was connected to his work with advocates and supporting Uyghur heritage. He chose 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 family.

A Terrible Mistake

Leaving Turkey proved to be a terrible mistake. At the airport, immigration officials pulled him aside for questioning. "After he was finally permitted to get on the plane, he told me how relieved he was that they had released him, but it felt like a trap to me," she said. Her deepest concerns 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 asked for Idris to be added on the agency's most-wanted "alert list." Zeynure claims Turkish officials allowed him take the flight aware he would be apprehended upon landing in Morocco.

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

Family Interference

Soon after hearing of her husband's detention, Zeynure got an unexpected phone call from her family 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 return to China.

Her parents had a chilling message. "They said, 'We know your husband is not with you. Perhaps we can assist you,'" Zeynure stated. "I realized 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. 'Don't do anything except caring for your children,' they told me. 'Avoid saying anything bad about China.'"

But with her husband's life at stake, the softly spoken Zeynure was not going to stay quiet. She had been raised seeing 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 looking after my family; I didn't even have Facebook 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 deported to China will be tortured or killed. They pushed me to raise my voice."

Growing Up in Xinjiang

Zeynure has different types of recollections of her early years in Xinjiang. The first was of blissful days spent in the countryside with her elders, who were farmers. "I'd play with the animals and poultry. I don't know if I will ever have that kind of opportunity again. The family around the home and land. It was too beautiful, like a picture from a story."

The second was as a religious minority in Xinjiang, of vacations cut short by forced teachings of "communist songs" and being banned from attending the mosque or observing Ramadan.

China claims it is tackling radicalism through 'managing illegal religious activities' and 'training centers', but other nations, including the US, say its actions constitute ethnic cleansing. Zeynure says she never felt able to practice her religious beliefs in Xinjiang. "People who went on religious journey to Mecca abroad were arrested 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 gave you jobs and this beautiful life here'," says Zeynure.

She finally decided to depart China after coming back home from college in another part of China to a growing repression on religious freedoms in 2011. It was then that she was introduced to Idris by one of her classmates. "She knew we both had made the decision to go overseas and told us maybe we could get together and go as a group."

Zeynure says she was immediately comforted by Idris. "I saw 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."

Fresh Start in Turkey

Within two months they were wed and ready to leave for a new life in Turkey. They knew it was an Muslim-majority country with many Muslims and Uyghurs already living there, with a similar tongue and common ethnicity. "It was like Uyghurs' alternative homeland," says Zeynure. As a educator and designer, they could also support the community in diaspora. "There are many children now in China growing up without Uyghur culture or language so we think it's our responsibility to not let it die out," she says.

But their relief at locating a secure location overseas was short-lived. Beijing has become a prominent force in pursuing dissidents living in exile through the use of monitoring, threats and physical assault. But what Idris was subjected to was a more recent method of control: using China's growing financial influence to pressure other countries to bend to its will, including arresting and extraditing Uyghurs it wants to suppress.

Fighting for Release

After the phone call from Idris, and discovering he had an Interpol red notice hanging over him, Zeynure knew she only had a short window of opportunity to try to stop 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 brave despite China having already shown a readiness to go after the family members of other individuals.

Zeynure started protesting with her children at the diplomatic mission in Istanbul, and posting updates on online platforms. To her surprise, similar protests soon occurred in Morocco demanding Idris's freedom. Moroccan officials were forced to put out a announcement saying his extradition was a matter for the judicial system to determine.

In the start of August 2021, Interpol cancelled Idris's red notice 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 significant political influence from Beijing, which made {little sense|