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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. There had been four painful days since their last contact, when he was preparing to board a flight to Morocco. The silence had been torturous.

But the update her husband Idris delivered was even worse. He informed her that upon landing in Morocco, he had been detained and jailed. Authorities informed him he would be extradited to China. "Contact everyone who can rescue me," he pleaded, before the line went dead.

Existence as Ethnic Minority in Turkey

The wife, in her early thirties, and Idris, 37, are part of the Uyghur ethnic group, which makes up about 50% of the residents in China's western Xinjiang province. Over the past decade, over a 1,000,000 Uyghurs are reported to have been detained in alleged "re-education camps," where they faced torture for commonplace acts like attending a place of worship or wearing a headscarf.

The pair had been among many of Uyghurs who escaped to Turkey during the previous decade. They hoped they would find refuge in their new home, but quickly realized they were wrong.

"Authorities informed me that the Chinese government threatened to close all its industrial plants in the nation if Morocco freed him," she stated.

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure became an language instructor, while Idris started as a translator and designer, helping to produce Uyghur news and publications. They had a family of three kids and enjoyed free to practice as followers of Islam.

But when one of Idris's close friends, who was employed in a library stocking Uyghur books, was detained in the mid-year of 2021, Idris became fearful. Reports indicated that Beijing was pressuring Turkey to deport Uyghurs. Idris felt at risk due to his previous arrest, which he believed was connected to his work with activists and supporting Uyghur culture. He decided to escape to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had expired, had to remain with the children until her husband could apply for a travel document for the whole family.

A Terrible Mistake

Departing Turkey turned out to be a terrible decision. At the Istanbul airport, immigration officials pulled him aside for interrogation. "After he was finally permitted to board the plane, he told me how happy he was that they had released him, but it felt like a set-up to me," Zeynure recalled. Her worst fears were realized when he was taken off the plane and arrested by Moroccan authorities.

Over the last ten years, China has been using the global police agency Interpol to pursue political refugees and had asked for Idris to be placed on the agency's most-wanted "alert list." Zeynure says Turkish officials allowed him take the flight knowing he would be arrested upon landing in Morocco.

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

Family Interference

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

Her parents had a chilling message. "They said, 'We know your husband is not with you. Maybe we can assist you,'" she stated. "I knew there must be some authorities there with them and just pretended like I didn't know anything. But they insisted and told me not to do anything to help my husband. 'Don't do anything except feeding your children,' they told me. 'Don't say anything bad about China.'"

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

"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 Twitter. But I had to do something to save my husband – I had to tell the truth to the world. Everyone knows Uyghurs deported to China will be tortured or killed. They pushed me to raise my voice."

Growing Up in Xinjiang

Zeynure has different types of recollections 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 sheep and poultry. I don't know if I will ever have that type of opportunity again. The relatives around the house and farm. It was too beautiful, like a scene from a story."

The second was as a Muslim Uyghur in Xinjiang, of school holidays cut short by forced teachings of "communist songs" and being prohibited from going to the mosque or observing Ramadan.

China says it is tackling radicalism through 'managing illegal religious activities' and 'training centers', but other countries, including the US, say its actions amount to ethnic cleansing. Zeynure says she never felt free to follow her religious beliefs in Xinjiang. "Individuals who went on pilgrimage to Mecca abroad were arrested and transferred to prison and told they must have some issue in their brain.

"They wanted Uyghur people to abandon their faith and heritage. They said 'you should trust in us, we gave you jobs and this good life here'," says Zeynure.

She eventually decided to leave China after coming back 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 school friends. "She was aware we both had made the choice to go abroad and told us maybe we could get together and go together."

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

Fresh Start in Turkey

Within 60 days they were wed and ready 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 similar tongue and common background. "It was like Uyghurs' alternative homeland," says Zeynure. As a teacher and creative, they could also support the Uyghur population in diaspora. "There are many children now in China being raised without Uyghur culture or dialect so we think it's our duty to not let it disappear," she says.

But their relief at finding a secure location overseas was short-lived. Beijing has become a global leader in targeting dissidents living in exile through the use of monitoring, intimidation and violence. But what Idris was faced was a newer method of control: using China's increasing economic leverage to pressure other countries to yield to its will, including arresting and deporting Uyghurs it wants to silence.

Fighting for Freedom

After the call from Idris, and learning he had an Interpol alert hanging over him, Zeynure knew she only had a limited time of chance to try to stop his deportation to China. She immediately contacted as many Uyghur support groups as she could find listed online in the EU and the US and pleaded for help. She was brave despite China having already shown a readiness to target the family members of other individuals.

Zeynure started protesting with her children at the Moroccan embassy in Istanbul, and posting updates on social media. To her surprise, similar protests soon followed in Morocco demanding Idris's release. Moroccan officials were compelled to put out a statement saying his deportation was a matter for the courts to decide.

In the start of August 2021, Interpol withdrew Idris's alert after being pressed to reexamine his case by human rights groups. But that did not prevent a Moroccan court later ruling he should still be extradited to China. Zeynure says there was significant political influence from Beijing, which made {little sense|