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In July 2021, Zeynure Hasan was at her home in Turkey's largest city when she answered a desperately anticipated phone call from her husband. It had been four stressful days since their last communication, when he was getting ready to board a flight to Casablanca. The silence had been unbearable.

But the update her husband Idris revealed was more devastating. He told her that upon landing in Morocco, he had been taken into custody and imprisoned. Authorities told him he would be sent back to China. "Call everyone who can help me," he urged, before the line went silent.

Existence as Ethnic Minority in Turkey

Zeynure, in her early thirties, and Idris, in his late thirties, are members of the Uyghur community, which makes up about 50% of the population in China's north-western Xinjiang province. Over the past decade, over a million Uyghurs are estimated to have been imprisoned in so-called "re-education camps," where they faced abuse for ordinary acts like going to a place of worship or wearing a hijab.

The couple had been among thousands of Uyghurs who fled to Turkey during the 2010s. They hoped they would find security in exile, but quickly discovered they were mistaken.

"Authorities informed me that the Chinese government warned to close all its industrial plants in the country if Morocco released him," she stated.

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

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

A Costly Mistake

Departing Turkey turned out to be a disastrous decision. At the Istanbul airport, immigration officials took Idris aside for interrogation. "After he was finally allowed to board the plane, he told me how happy he was that they had let him go, but it felt like a set-up to me," she recalled. Her worst fears were confirmed when he was removed from the plane and arrested by border officials.

Over the last ten years, China has been utilizing the international police agency Interpol to pursue political refugees and had requested for Idris to be added on the agency's high-priority "red notice list." Zeynure says Turkish officials let him take the flight aware he would be arrested upon arrival in Morocco.

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

Parental Pressure

Soon after hearing of her husband's arrest, Zeynure got an surprising phone call from her family in Xinjiang. She had been separated from her relatives since they came to see her in Turkey in 2016 and were imprisoned for several 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 explained. "I knew there must be some police there with them and just pretended 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. 'Avoid saying anything bad about China.'"

But with her husband's life at risk, the quiet-mannered Zeynure was not going to stay quiet. She had been raised witnessing women having their head coverings forcibly removed in open by the authorities and had been determined 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 these platforms. But I had to do something to rescue my husband – I had to reveal the truth to the international community. Everyone knows Uyghurs sent to China will be tortured or killed. They pushed me to raise my voice."

Growing Up in Xinjiang

Zeynure has different types of memories of her childhood in Xinjiang. The first was of happy 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 type of opportunity again. The family around the home and farm. 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 prohibited from going to the religious site or observing Ramadan.

China claims it is addressing extremism through 'managing unauthorized religious activities' and 'vocational education centers', but other countries, including the US, say its actions constitute ethnic cleansing. Zeynure says she never felt able to practice her religious beliefs in Xinjiang. "Individuals who went on pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia were detained and transferred to prison and told they must have some problem in their mind.

"They wanted Uyghur people to forget their religion and heritage. They said 'you should believe in us, we provided you jobs and this good life here'," says Zeynure.

She finally decided to leave China after returning home from university in Eastern China to a growing crackdown on religious freedoms in 2011. It was then that she was introduced to Idris by one of her classmates. "She was aware we both had taken the decision to go abroad and told us maybe we could meet and go together."

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

Fresh Start 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 Muslims and Uyghurs already living there, with a comparable tongue and common background. "It was like Uyghurs' second home," says Zeynure. As a educator and creative, they could also help the Uyghur population in exile. "We have many kids now in China growing up without Uyghur culture or dialect so we think it's our responsibility to not let it die out," she says.

But their sense of safety at finding a place of safety overseas was short-lived. Beijing has become a prominent force in targeting critics abroad through the use of electronic surveillance, intimidation and physical assault. But what Idris was subjected to was a more recent tool of repression: using China's growing economic leverage to force other countries to yield to its demands, including arresting and deporting Uyghurs it wants to suppress.

Campaigning for Release

After the call from Idris, and discovering he had an Interpol alert against him, Zeynure knew she only had a short window of opportunity to try to stop his deportation to China. She right away reached out to as many Uyghur support groups as she could find listed on the internet in the EU and the US and begged for assistance. She was brave despite China having already shown a readiness to target the relatives of other individuals.

Zeynure started protesting with her children at the Moroccan embassy in Istanbul, and posting 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 announcement saying his deportation was a issue for the courts to determine.

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