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In July 2021, a Uyghur woman named Zeynure was at her home in Istanbul when she answered a long-awaited phone call from her husband. There had been four painful days since their last communication, when he was preparing to board a flight to Morocco. The lack of communication had been difficult.

But the news her husband Idris revealed was more alarming. He explained that upon arrival in Morocco, he had been taken into custody and imprisoned. Authorities told him he would be deported to China. "Reach out to everyone who can rescue me," he urged, before the line went dead.

Existence as Ethnic Minority in Turkey

Zeynure, in her early thirties, and Idris, 37, are members of the Uyghur ethnic group, which makes up about half of the residents 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 mistreatment for ordinary acts like attending a mosque or using a hijab.

The couple had been among many of Uyghurs who escaped to Turkey during the previous decade. They thought they would find refuge in exile, but quickly realized they were wrong.

"Authorities informed me that the Beijing officials threatened to shut down all its factories in the nation if Morocco freed him," she explained.

After settling in Istanbul, Zeynure worked as an language instructor, while Idris started as a interpreter and artist, helping to publish Uyghur news and printed works. They had a family of three kids and enjoyed able to live as Muslims.

But when one of Idris's close friends, who worked in a library stocking Uyghur books, was arrested in the mid-year of 2021, Idris panicked. Reports indicated that Beijing was urging Turkey to extradite Uyghurs. Idris felt vulnerable due to his previous detention, which he believed was linked to his work with advocates and supporting Uyghur heritage. He decided to escape to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had lapsed, had to remain with the children until her husband could apply for a travel document for the family.

A Terrible Mistake

Leaving Turkey proved to be a terrible mistake. At the Istanbul airport, border control officials took Idris aside for interrogation. "After he was eventually permitted to board 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 deepest concerns were realized when he was taken off the plane and arrested by Moroccan authorities.

Over the past decade, China has been utilizing the international police agency Interpol to target dissidents and had asked 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 lead her to do what many Uyghurs fear most: defy China, regardless of the consequences.

Parental Interference

Shortly after learning of her husband's arrest, Zeynure got an surprising phone call from her parents in Xinjiang. She had been separated from her family since they came to see her in Turkey in 2016 and were jailed for a few 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,'" she stated. "I realized there must be some authorities there with them and just acted 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 negative about China.'"

But with her husband's safety at risk, the quiet-mannered Zeynure was not going to stay quiet. She had been raised witnessing women having their head coverings forcibly removed in public by the police and had been resolved 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 caring for my family; I didn't even have social media or these platforms. But I had to do something to rescue my husband – I had to reveal the truth to the world. Everyone knows Uyghurs sent to China will be abused or killed. They forced me to raise my voice."

Childhood in Xinjiang

Zeynure has two distinct types of memories of her childhood in Xinjiang. The first was of blissful days spent in the countryside with her grandparents, who were agricultural workers. "I'd play with the animals and chickens. I don't know if I will ever have that type of chance again. The family around the home and land. It was too wonderful, like a scene from a story."

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

China says it is tackling extremism 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 able to practice her faith in Xinjiang. "Individuals who went on pilgrimage to Mecca abroad were detained and transferred to prison and told they must have some issue in their mind.

"They aimed for Uyghur people to forget their religion and heritage. They said 'you should trust in us, we provided you jobs and this good life here'," says Zeynure.

She eventually decided to leave China after returning home from college in another part of China to a growing repression 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 decision 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 honest and shy, and couldn't be dishonest 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 two months they were wed and prepared to leave for a new life in Turkey. They knew it was an Muslim-majority country with many Muslims and Uyghurs already residing there, with a comparable language and shared background. "It was like Uyghurs' alternative homeland," says Zeynure. As a teacher and creative, they could also help the community in diaspora. "There are many kids now in China being raised without Uyghur culture or language so we think it's our duty to not let it disappear," she says.

But their relief at finding a place of safety abroad was short-lived. Beijing has become a global leader in targeting dissidents abroad through the use of monitoring, intimidation and violence. But what Idris was subjected to was a newer method of control: using China's growing financial influence to pressure other nations to yield to its demands, including detaining and extraditing Uyghurs it wants to silence.

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 chance to try to stop his deportation to China. She immediately contacted as many Uyghur advocacy organizations as she could find advertised on the internet in the EU and the US and pleaded for help. She was brave 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 social media. To her amazement, copycat protests soon followed in Morocco calling for Idris's release. Moroccan officials were compelled to issue a statement saying his extradition was a matter for the courts to determine.

In the start of August 2021, Interpol withdrew Idris's red notice after being urged to reexamine his case by human rights groups. But that did not stop a Moroccan court later ruling he should still be extradited to China. Zeynure says there was huge diplomatic pressure from Beijing, which made {little sense|