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In July 2021, Zeynure Hasan was at her home in Turkey's largest city when she received a desperately anticipated phone call from her husband. There had been four painful days since their last contact, when he was getting ready to take a flight to Morocco. The silence had been unbearable.

But the news her husband Idris shared was more alarming. He informed her that upon landing in Morocco, he had been taken into custody and jailed. Authorities informed him he would be extradited to China. "Call anyone who can rescue me," he pleaded, before the line went silent.

Existence as Ethnic Minority in Turkey

The wife, 31 years old, and Idris, 37, are members of the Uyghur community, which constitutes about 50% of the residents in China's western Xinjiang province. Over the last ten years, over a 1,000,000 Uyghurs are reported to have been imprisoned in so-called "re-education camps," where they faced torture for commonplace 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 previous decade. They hoped they would find refuge in exile, but quickly found they were wrong.

"Authorities informed me that the Beijing officials warned to shut down all its factories in the country if Morocco freed him," Zeynure stated.

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure worked as an language instructor, while Idris started as a translator and designer, helping to produce Uyghur media and printed works. They had three children and felt able to practice as followers of Islam.

But when one of Idris's close friends, who was employed in a library stocking Uyghur books, was arrested in the mid-year of 2021, Idris became fearful. News indicated that Beijing was urging Turkey to deport Uyghurs. Idris felt vulnerable due to his prior arrest, which he believed was connected to his work with advocates and supporting Uyghur culture. He chose to flee to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had lapsed, had to stay behind with the children until her husband could apply for a travel document for the family.

A Costly Error

Leaving Turkey turned out to be a disastrous mistake. At the Istanbul airport, immigration officials pulled him aside for interrogation. "When he was eventually permitted to get on the plane, he told me how relieved 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 taken off the plane and arrested by border officials.

Over the last ten years, China has been using the global police agency Interpol to pursue dissidents and had asked for Idris to be added on the agency's most-wanted "red notice list." Zeynure says Turkish officials allowed him board the flight aware he would be arrested upon arrival in Morocco.

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

Parental Pressure

Shortly after hearing of her husband's arrest, Zeynure received an unexpected phone call from her family in Xinjiang. She had been cut off from her family since they came to see her in Turkey in 2016 and were imprisoned for several months upon their return to China.

Her parents had a chilling warning. "They said, 'We know your husband is not with you. Perhaps we can help you,'" Zeynure stated. "I realized 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 safety at stake, the softly spoken Zeynure was not going to stay quiet. She had grown up witnessing women having their head coverings ripped off in open by the police and had been determined 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 Facebook 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 deported to China will be tortured or die. They forced me to speak out."

Childhood in Xinjiang

Zeynure has two distinct types of recollections of her childhood in Xinjiang. The first was of happy days spent in the rural areas with her elders, who were agricultural workers. "I'd play with the animals and chickens. I don't know if I will ever have that type of opportunity again. The family around the house and land. It was too beautiful, like a picture from a book."

The second was as a Muslim Uyghur in Xinjiang, of school holidays interrupted by mandatory teachings of "political anthems" and being prohibited from attending the mosque or practicing Ramadan.

China says it is tackling radicalism through 'managing unauthorized religious activities' and 'training facilities', but other countries, including the US, say its actions constitute genocide. Zeynure says she never felt able to practice her faith in Xinjiang. "People who went on religious journey to Mecca abroad were arrested and sent to prison and told they must have some issue in their brain.

"They aimed for Uyghur people to abandon their faith and culture. They said 'you should trust in us, we provided you jobs and this beautiful life here'," says Zeynure.

She finally decided to leave China after coming back home from college in Eastern China to a growing repression on beliefs in 2011. It was then that she was introduced to Idris by one of her school friends. "She was aware we both had taken the choice to go overseas and told us perhaps we could meet and go together."

Zeynure says she was right away comforted by Idris. "I saw he was very truthful and shy, and couldn't tell lies or do anything wrong. 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 married and ready to move for a new life in Turkey. They knew it was an Muslim-majority country with many believers and Uyghurs already living there, with a comparable tongue and shared background. "It felt like Uyghurs' second home," says Zeynure. As a educator and designer, they could also support the Uyghur population in diaspora. "We have many children now in China growing up without Uyghur traditions or language so we think it's our duty to not let it die out," she says.

But their sense of safety at locating a secure location abroad was temporary. Beijing has become a prominent force in pursuing dissidents abroad through the use of electronic surveillance, intimidation and physical assault. But what Idris was subjected to was a newer tool of control: using China's increasing financial influence to force other nations to yield to its demands, including detaining 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 prevent his extradition to China. She immediately reached out to as many Uyghur advocacy organizations as she could find advertised on the internet in the EU and the US and pleaded for assistance. She was fearless despite China having already demonstrated a readiness to go after the relatives of other targets.

Zeynure started protesting with her children at the diplomatic mission in Istanbul, and sharing information on social media. To her surprise, copycat protests soon occurred in Morocco calling for Idris's freedom. Moroccan officials were forced to issue a announcement saying his extradition was a issue for the judicial system to decide.

In the start of August 2021, Interpol cancelled Idris's alert after being urged to review his case by advocacy organizations. But that did not prevent a Moroccan court later deciding he should still be sent back to China. Zeynure says there was huge diplomatic pressure from Beijing, which made {little sense|