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In the summer of 2021, a Uyghur woman named Zeynure was at her residence in Istanbul when she got a desperately anticipated phone call from her husband. It had been four painful days since their last communication, when he was preparing to take a flight to Casablanca. The lack of communication had been torturous.

But the news her husband Idris delivered was more alarming. He explained that upon arrival in Morocco, he had been arrested and jailed. Authorities told him he would be sent back to China. "Contact everyone who can help me," he pleaded, before the line went silent.

Life as Ethnic Minority in Exile

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 western Xinjiang province. Over the last ten years, over a million Uyghurs are reported to have been imprisoned in so-called "re-education camps," where they faced mistreatment for ordinary actions like going to a mosque or wearing a headscarf.

The couple had been among thousands of Uyghurs who escaped to Turkey during the 2010s. They believed they would find security in exile, but soon found they were wrong.

"Authorities informed me that the Chinese government threatened to close all its industrial plants in the country if Morocco released him," Zeynure said.

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure worked as an English teacher, while Idris started as a interpreter and designer, assisting to publish Uyghur media and publications. They had a family of three kids and enjoyed able to practice as Muslims.

But when one of Idris's close friends, who worked in a library containing Uyghur books, was detained in the summer of 2021, Idris became fearful. News indicated that Beijing was urging Turkey to extradite Uyghurs. Idris felt at risk due to his prior arrest, which he believed was connected to his work with activists and promoting Uyghur heritage. He decided to flee to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had expired, had to stay behind with the children until her husband could request a travel document for the whole family.

A Terrible Error

Leaving Turkey turned out to be a disastrous decision. At the Istanbul airport, border control officials took Idris aside for questioning. "When he was eventually allowed to board the plane, he told me how happy he was that they had released him, but it felt like a trap to me," Zeynure said. Her deepest concerns were realized when he was removed from the plane and detained by Moroccan authorities.

Over the past decade, China has been using the international police agency Interpol to target political refugees and had requested for Idris to be added on the agency's high-priority "red notice list." Zeynure claims Turkish officials let him take the flight aware he would be apprehended upon arrival in Morocco.

What followed would convince her to do what many Uyghurs fear most: challenge China, despite the consequences.

Parental Interference

Soon after learning of her husband's arrest, Zeynure got an surprising phone call from her parents in Xinjiang. She had been separated from her family 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 chilling warning. "They said, 'We know your husband is not with you. Maybe we can assist you,'" she 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. '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 grown up seeing 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.

"Prior to 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 rescue my husband – I had to reveal the reality to the international community. Everyone knows Uyghurs sent to China will be abused or killed. They forced me to speak out."

Childhood in Xinjiang

Zeynure has two distinct types of memories of her early years in Xinjiang. The first was of happy days spent in the countryside with her grandparents, who were agricultural workers. "I used to play with the animals and poultry. I don't know if I will ever have that type of chance again. The family around the house and farm. It was too beautiful, like a picture from a story."

The second was as a Muslim Uyghur in Xinjiang, of vacations interrupted by forced teachings of "communist songs" and being prohibited from going to the religious site or practicing Ramadan.

China claims it is tackling extremism through 'controlling unauthorized religious activities' and 'training facilities', but other countries, including the US, say its actions amount to ethnic cleansing. Zeynure says she never felt free to follow her faith in Xinjiang. "People who went on religious journey to Mecca in Saudi Arabia were detained and sent to prison and told they must have some problem in their mind.

"They aimed for Uyghur people to abandon their religion and culture. They said 'you should trust 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 increasing crackdown on beliefs in 2011. It was then that she was connected to Idris by one of her classmates. "She was aware 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 right away comforted by Idris. "I realized he was very honest and shy, and couldn't tell lies or do anything bad. There were some Uyghur men at university who wanted to marry me, but Idris was unique."

Fresh Start in Turkey

Within two months 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 living there, with a comparable language and shared background. "It felt like Uyghurs' second home," says Zeynure. As a educator and designer, they could also help the community in diaspora. "We have many children now in China growing up without Uyghur culture or language so we think it's our duty to not let it disappear," she says.

But their relief at locating a place of safety abroad was temporary. Beijing has become a prominent force in pursuing critics abroad through the use of monitoring, intimidation and violence. But what Idris was subjected to was a more recent tool of control: using China's increasing financial influence to force other countries to bend to its will, including arresting and deporting Uyghurs it wants to suppress.

Fighting for Release

After the phone call from Idris, and discovering he had an Interpol alert against him, Zeynure knew she only had a short window of chance to try to stop his extradition to China. She right away reached out to as many Uyghur advocacy organizations as she could find listed on the internet in Europe and the US and pleaded for assistance. She was brave despite China having already demonstrated a willingness to go after the family members of other individuals.

Zeynure started demonstrating with her children at the diplomatic mission in Istanbul, and posting updates on social media. To her surprise, copycat protests soon followed in Morocco demanding Idris's freedom. Moroccan officials were compelled to put out a announcement saying his deportation 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|