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

But the news her husband Idris delivered was even worse. He explained that upon landing in Morocco, he had been taken into custody and imprisoned. Authorities informed him he would be sent back to China. "Reach out to everyone who can assist me," he pleaded, before the line went silent.

Life as Ethnic Minority in Exile

The wife, in her early thirties, and Idris, 37, are members of the Uyghur community, which makes up about half of the population in China's western Xinjiang province. Over the past decade, more than a 1,000,000 Uyghurs are believed to have been detained in alleged "vocational training camps," where they faced abuse for commonplace acts like going to a place of worship or wearing a hijab.

The pair had been among many of Uyghurs who fled to Turkey during the previous decade. They hoped they would find safety in their new home, but quickly found they were mistaken.

"Authorities informed me that the Chinese government threatened to shut down all its industrial plants in the nation if Morocco released him," Zeynure said.

After settling in Istanbul, Zeynure became an English teacher, while Idris started as a interpreter and artist, assisting to publish Uyghur media and publications. They had three children and felt free to live as followers of Islam.

But when one of Idris's close friends, who worked in a book repository stocking Uyghur books, was arrested in the summer of 2021, Idris became fearful. Reports indicated that Beijing was urging Turkey to extradite Uyghurs. Idris felt vulnerable due to his previous detention, which he believed was connected to his work with activists 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 whole family.

A Costly Error

Leaving Turkey proved to be a terrible decision. At the Istanbul airport, border control officials took Idris aside for questioning. "After he was eventually allowed to get on the plane, he told me how relieved he was that they had released him, but it felt like a trap to me," she said. Her worst fears were confirmed when he was removed from 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 "alert list." Zeynure says Turkish officials allowed him take the flight knowing he would be arrested upon arrival in Morocco.

What followed would lead her to do what many Uyghurs dread most: challenge China, regardless of the risks.

Family Pressure

Soon after learning of her husband's arrest, Zeynure got an surprising phone call from her parents in Xinjiang. She had been separated from her relatives since they visited her in Turkey in 2016 and were jailed for several months upon their going back to China.

Her parents had a disturbing message. "They said, 'We know your husband is not with you. Perhaps we can help you,'" she stated. "I realized there must be some police 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. '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 stay quiet. She had been raised witnessing women having their head coverings ripped off in open by the police and had been determined to live in a country with religious freedom.

"Before 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 save my husband – I had to tell the truth to the international community. Everyone knows Uyghurs deported to China will be abused or killed. They forced me to raise my voice."

Childhood in Xinjiang

Zeynure has two distinct types of recollections of her early years in Xinjiang. The first was of happy days spent in the countryside with her elders, who were agricultural workers. "I used to play with the animals and poultry. I don't know if I will ever have that type of chance again. The relatives around the house and farm. It was too beautiful, like a scene from a book."

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

China claims it is tackling extremism through 'controlling unauthorized religious activities' and 'training facilities', but other nations, including the US, say its actions constitute genocide. Zeynure says she never felt free to follow her religious beliefs in Xinjiang. "Individuals who went on religious journey to Mecca abroad were detained and transferred to jail and told they must have some issue in their mind.

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

She finally decided to leave China after returning home from college in another part of China to a increasing crackdown on religious freedoms in 2011. It was then that she was connected 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 get together and go together."

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

Fresh Start in Turkey

Within 60 days they were married and ready to leave for a different existence in Turkey. They knew it was an Islamic country with many Muslims and Uyghurs already residing there, with a similar language and common background. "It felt like Uyghurs' second home," says Zeynure. As a educator and designer, they could also help the community in diaspora. "We have many kids now in China growing up without Uyghur culture or language so we think it's our duty to not let it die out," she says.

But their relief at finding a place of safety overseas was temporary. Beijing has become a prominent force in pursuing dissidents abroad through the use of electronic surveillance, intimidation and violence. But what Idris was faced was a newer method of control: using China's growing financial influence to pressure other nations to bend to its demands, including detaining and extraditing Uyghurs it wants to suppress.

Fighting for Freedom

After the phone 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 deportation to China. She immediately contacted as many Uyghur support groups as she could find advertised online in Europe and the US and pleaded for assistance. She was fearless despite China having already demonstrated a willingness to go after the relatives of other individuals.

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

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