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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. There had been four painful 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 shared was more alarming. He told her that upon landing in Morocco, he had been taken into custody and jailed. Authorities told him he would be deported to China. "Call everyone who can rescue me," he said, before the line went silent.

Existence as Ethnic Minority in Exile

The wife, in her early thirties, and Idris, 37, are part of the Uyghur ethnic group, which constitutes about 50% of the population in China's 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 commonplace actions like going to a mosque or using a headscarf.

The couple had been among many of Uyghurs who fled to Turkey during the 2010s. They believed they would find safety in exile, but quickly realized they were wrong.

"I was told that the Chinese government warned to close all its industrial plants in the nation if Morocco released him," she explained.

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure became an English teacher, while Idris began as a translator and designer, helping to publish Uyghur media and publications. They had three children and felt free to practice as Muslims.

But when one of Idris's best friends, who was employed 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 previous detention, which he suspected 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 family.

A Costly Error

Departing Turkey turned out to be a terrible decision. At the Istanbul airport, immigration officials took Idris aside for interrogation. "When he was finally allowed to get on the plane, he told me how relieved he was that they had released him, but it felt like a set-up to me," she said. Her worst fears were confirmed when he was taken off the plane and detained by Moroccan authorities.

Over the past decade, China has been utilizing the global police agency Interpol to target dissidents and had requested for Idris to be added on the agency's most-wanted "red notice list." Zeynure claims Turkish officials allowed him take the flight knowing he would be apprehended upon landing in Morocco.

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

Parental Interference

Shortly after hearing of her husband's detention, Zeynure received an surprising phone call from her family in Xinjiang. She had been cut off from her relatives since they came to see her in Turkey in 2016 and were imprisoned for a few months upon their going back to China.

Her parents had a chilling warning. "They said, 'We know your husband is not with you. Maybe we can help you,'" Zeynure stated. "I realized there must be some police 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 risk, the softly spoken Zeynure was not going to remain silent. She had grown up seeing women having their hijabs forcibly removed in public by the police and had been determined to live in a country with religious freedom.

"Prior to my husband was arrested in Morocco, I didn't do anything. I was just caring for my family; I didn't even have Facebook or these platforms. But I had to do something to save my husband – I had to reveal the reality to the international community. Everyone knows Uyghurs sent to China will be abused or die. They forced me to raise my voice."

Growing Up 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 farmers. "I'd play with the animals and chickens. I don't know if I will ever have that kind of chance again. The relatives around the house and land. It was too wonderful, like a scene 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 says it is tackling extremism through 'managing unauthorized religious activities' and 'training centers', but other nations, including the US, say its actions constitute genocide. Zeynure says she never felt able to practice her religious beliefs in Xinjiang. "Individuals who went on pilgrimage to Mecca abroad were detained and sent to prison and told they must have some problem in their brain.

"They aimed for Uyghur people to abandon their religion and culture. They said 'you should trust in us, we gave you jobs and this good living here'," says Zeynure.

She finally decided to leave China after coming back home from college in another part of China to a growing crackdown on beliefs in 2011. It was then that she was connected to Idris by one of her school friends. "She was aware we both had taken the decision to go abroad and told us perhaps we could get together and go together."

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

A New Life in Turkey

Within 60 days they were wed and prepared to move for a different existence in Turkey. They knew it was an Islamic country with many believers and Uyghurs already residing there, with a similar tongue and shared ethnicity. "It was like Uyghurs' second home," says Zeynure. As a teacher and creative, they could also support the community in diaspora. "We have many kids now in China being raised 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 targeting dissidents abroad through the use of electronic surveillance, threats and violence. But what Idris was faced was a newer tool of repression: using China's growing financial influence to pressure other nations to yield to its demands, including arresting and extraditing Uyghurs it wants to suppress.

Fighting for Release

After the call from Idris, and discovering he had an Interpol alert hanging over him, Zeynure knew she only had a limited time of opportunity to try to prevent his deportation 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 begged for help. She was fearless despite China having already demonstrated a willingness to target the relatives of other targets.

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

In the start of August 2021, Interpol withdrew Idris's red notice after being pressed to review his case by advocacy organizations. But that did not stop a Moroccan court later deciding he should still be extradited to China. Zeynure says there was significant political influence from Beijing, which made {little sense|