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In the summer of 2021, Zeynure Hasan was at her residence in Turkey's largest city when she got a long-awaited phone call from her husband. It had been four stressful days since their last communication, when he was getting ready to take a flight to Morocco. The silence had been difficult.

But the update her husband Idris revealed was more alarming. He explained that upon landing in Morocco, he had been detained and imprisoned. Authorities informed him he would be deported to China. "Contact everyone who can rescue me," he pleaded, before the line went silent.

Existence as Uyghurs in Turkey

Zeynure, in her early thirties, and Idris, 37, are part of the mostly Muslim community, which makes up about 50% of the residents in China's western Xinjiang province. Over the past decade, over a million Uyghurs are believed to have been imprisoned in so-called "re-education camps," where they faced torture for commonplace actions like attending a place of worship or wearing a hijab.

The couple had joined thousands of Uyghurs who fled to Turkey during the 2010s. They hoped they would find security in their new home, but soon discovered they were mistaken.

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

After settling in Istanbul, Zeynure became an English teacher, while Idris started as a translator and designer, assisting to produce Uyghur news and publications. They had a family of three kids and enjoyed able to practice as followers of Islam.

But when one of Idris's best friends, who was employed in a library containing Uyghur books, was detained in the mid-year 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 suspected was linked to his work with activists and supporting 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 apply for a visa for the family.

A Terrible Error

Departing Turkey turned out to be a terrible mistake. At the Istanbul airport, immigration officials pulled him aside for questioning. "After he was finally allowed to get on the plane, he told me how happy he was that they had released him, but it felt like a set-up to me," Zeynure said. Her deepest concerns were realized when he was removed from the plane and detained by border officials.

Over the last ten years, China has been using 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 claims Turkish officials allowed him board the flight aware he would be apprehended upon arrival in Morocco.

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

Parental Pressure

Shortly after learning of her husband's arrest, Zeynure received an surprising 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 a few months upon their going back to China.

Her parents had a chilling warning. "They told me, 'We know your husband is not with you. Perhaps we can help you,'" she explained. "I knew 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. 'Avoid saying anything negative about China.'"

But with her husband's safety at stake, the softly spoken Zeynure was not going to remain silent. She had grown up seeing women having their head coverings ripped off in open by the authorities and had been resolved to live in a country with religious freedom.

"Before my husband was arrested in Morocco, I didn't do anything. I was just caring for my family; I didn't even have social media or Twitter. 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 tortured or killed. They pushed me to speak out."

Growing Up in Xinjiang

Zeynure has different types of recollections of her early years in Xinjiang. The first was of blissful days spent in the countryside with her grandparents, who were agricultural workers. "I used to play with the sheep 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 book."

The second was as a Muslim Uyghur in Xinjiang, of vacations interrupted by mandatory teachings of "communist songs" and being banned from attending the mosque or observing Ramadan.

China says it is addressing extremism through 'controlling unauthorized religious activities' and 'training facilities', but other nations, including the US, say its actions constitute ethnic cleansing. Zeynure says she never felt able to follow her faith in Xinjiang. "People who went on pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia 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 believe in us, we gave you jobs and this beautiful living here'," says Zeynure.

She eventually decided to depart China after returning home from college in Eastern China to a increasing crackdown on beliefs in 2011. It was then that she was introduced to Idris by one of her classmates. "She knew we both had made the choice to go abroad and told us perhaps we could meet and go as a group."

Zeynure says she was immediately comforted by Idris. "I saw he was very truthful and reserved, and couldn't tell lies or do anything wrong. There were some Uyghur men at university who wanted to wed me, but Idris was unique."

A New Life in Turkey

Within two months they were married and ready to leave for a new life in Turkey. They knew it was an Islamic country with many Muslims and Uyghurs already residing there, with a comparable tongue and shared background. "It felt like Uyghurs' alternative homeland," says Zeynure. As a educator and designer, they could also support the Uyghur population in exile. "We have many kids now in China being raised without Uyghur culture or dialect so we think it's our responsibility to not let it die out," she says.

But their relief at finding a secure location abroad was temporary. Beijing has become a prominent force in targeting dissidents living in exile through the use of electronic surveillance, intimidation and violence. But what Idris was faced was a newer method of repression: using China's increasing economic leverage to pressure other nations to bend to its demands, including detaining and deporting Uyghurs it wants to silence.

Fighting for Freedom

After the phone call from Idris, and learning he had an Interpol alert hanging over him, Zeynure knew she only had a short window of opportunity to try to stop his extradition to China. She right away reached out to as many Uyghur advocacy organizations as she could find advertised online in Europe and the US and begged for help. She was brave despite China having already demonstrated a readiness to target the family members of other individuals.

Zeynure started protesting with her children at the diplomatic mission in Istanbul, and posting information on online platforms. To her amazement, similar protests soon occurred in Morocco demanding 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 the start of August 2021, Interpol cancelled Idris's red notice after being pressed to review his case by human rights groups. But that did not prevent 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|