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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 stressful days since their last contact, when he was getting ready to board a flight to Casablanca. The lack of communication had been unbearable.

But the information her husband Idris revealed was more alarming. He informed her that upon arrival in Morocco, he had been detained and jailed. Authorities stated he would be deported to China. "Contact everyone who can assist me," he urged, before the line went dead.

Life as Ethnic Minority in Turkey

Zeynure, 31 years old, and Idris, 37, are part of the mostly Muslim ethnic group, which makes up about 50% of the population in China's western Xinjiang region. Over the past decade, over a million Uyghurs are believed to have been imprisoned in alleged "re-education camps," where they faced mistreatment for commonplace acts like going to a mosque or wearing a headscarf.

The couple had been among many of Uyghurs who fled to Turkey during the 2010s. They thought they would find safety in their new home, but soon discovered they were wrong.

"Authorities informed me that the Beijing officials threatened to shut down all its industrial plants in the country if Morocco released him," she stated.

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure became an language instructor, while Idris started as a translator and artist, assisting to publish Uyghur media and printed works. They had a family of three kids and felt free to practice as followers of Islam.

But when one of Idris's best friends, who worked in a library containing Uyghur books, was arrested in the summer of 2021, Idris became fearful. News indicated that Beijing was pressuring Turkey to deport Uyghurs. Idris felt vulnerable due to his prior arrest, which he suspected was linked to his work with activists and supporting Uyghur heritage. He chose 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 visa for the family.

A Terrible Mistake

Departing Turkey proved to be a terrible mistake. At the airport, immigration officials took Idris aside for interrogation. "After he was eventually permitted 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 said. 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 most-wanted "red notice list." Zeynure claims Turkish officials allowed him board the flight knowing he would be apprehended upon arrival in Morocco.

What followed would lead 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 unexpected phone call from her parents in Xinjiang. She had been cut off from her family since they came to see her in Turkey in 2016 and were jailed 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. Perhaps we can help you,'" Zeynure stated. "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 life at stake, the quiet-mannered Zeynure was not going to remain silent. She had grown up seeing women having their head coverings ripped off in public by the police and had been determined 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 social media or these platforms. 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 die. They pushed me to raise my voice."

Growing Up in Xinjiang

Zeynure has two distinct 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 chickens. I don't know if I will ever have that type of opportunity again. The relatives around the house and farm. It was too beautiful, like a scene from a book."

The second was as a Muslim Uyghur in Xinjiang, of school holidays interrupted by forced teachings of "communist songs" and being prohibited from going to the mosque or observing Ramadan.

China claims it is addressing radicalism through 'managing illegal religious activities' and 'training facilities', but other countries, including the US, say its actions amount to genocide. Zeynure says she never felt able to practice her religious beliefs in Xinjiang. "Individuals who went on religious journey to Mecca in Saudi Arabia were detained and sent to jail 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 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 beliefs 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 overseas and told us maybe we could get together and go as a group."

Zeynure says she was immediately reassured by Idris. "I realized he was very honest and shy, and couldn't be dishonest or do anything wrong. There were some Uyghur boys at university who wanted to marry me, but Idris was unique."

A New Life in Turkey

Within 60 days they were married and prepared to move for a different existence in Turkey. They knew it was an Muslim-majority country with many believers and Uyghurs already residing there, with a comparable tongue and common background. "It was like Uyghurs' alternative homeland," says Zeynure. As a educator and designer, they could also help the community in diaspora. "There are many kids now in China being raised without Uyghur traditions or language so we think it's our responsibility to not let it die out," she says.

But their sense of safety at finding a secure location overseas was short-lived. Beijing has become a prominent force in targeting critics abroad through the use of electronic surveillance, threats and physical assault. But what Idris was faced was a newer method of control: using China's increasing financial influence to force other nations to yield to its will, including detaining and extraditing Uyghurs it wants to suppress.

Fighting for Freedom

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 chance to try to stop his deportation to China. She immediately reached out to as many Uyghur support groups as she could find advertised online in the EU and the US and begged for assistance. She was fearless despite China having already shown a willingness to go after the relatives of other targets.

Zeynure started demonstrating with her children at the Moroccan embassy in Istanbul, and sharing information on online platforms. To her amazement, similar protests soon followed in Morocco calling for Idris's freedom. Moroccan officials were compelled to put out a statement saying his deportation was a issue for the judicial system to determine.

In early August 2021, Interpol cancelled Idris's red notice after being urged to reexamine his case by human rights groups. But that did not prevent a Moroccan court later ruling he should still be extradited to China. Zeynure says there was significant diplomatic pressure from Beijing, which made {little sense|