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In July 2021, a Uyghur woman named Zeynure was at her home in Turkey's largest city when she got a desperately anticipated phone call from her husband. There had been four agonizing days since their last contact, when he was getting ready to take a flight to Casablanca. The silence had been difficult.

But the information her husband Idris revealed was even worse. He explained that upon arrival in Morocco, he had been detained and imprisoned. Authorities stated he would be extradited 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 constitutes about half of the population in China's western Xinjiang province. Over the past decade, more than a 1,000,000 Uyghurs are estimated to have been imprisoned in alleged "vocational training camps," where they faced torture for ordinary acts like going to a mosque or using a hijab.

The couple had been among thousands of Uyghurs who fled to Turkey during the 2010s. They thought they would find safety in exile, but quickly found they were wrong.

"I was told that the Beijing officials threatened to close all its factories in the country if Morocco released him," Zeynure explained.

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure worked as an English teacher, while Idris began as a interpreter and designer, helping to publish Uyghur news and publications. They had a family of three kids and felt able to practice as Muslims.

But when one of Idris's best friends, who worked in a library stocking Uyghur books, was arrested in the summer of 2021, Idris became fearful. Reports indicated that Beijing was pressuring Turkey to extradite Uyghurs. Idris felt vulnerable due to his prior arrest, which he suspected was linked to his work with advocates and promoting Uyghur heritage. He chose to escape to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had lapsed, had to remain with the children until her husband could apply for a visa for the family.

A Costly Error

Leaving Turkey proved to be a terrible decision. At the Istanbul airport, immigration officials took Idris aside for interrogation. "After he was finally allowed 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," Zeynure said. Her worst fears were confirmed when he was removed from the plane and detained by border officials.

Over the last ten years, China has been utilizing the international police agency Interpol to target political refugees and had asked for Idris to be placed on the agency's high-priority "alert list." Zeynure claims Turkish officials allowed him board the flight knowing he would be arrested upon landing in Morocco.

What happened next would lead her to do what many Uyghurs dread most: defy China, regardless of the risks.

Parental Pressure

Shortly after learning of her husband's detention, Zeynure received an surprising phone call from her family in Xinjiang. She had been separated from her relatives since they visited her in Turkey in 2016 and were imprisoned 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 assist you,'" she explained. "I knew there must be some police 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 caring for your children,' they told me. 'Avoid saying anything bad about China.'"

But with her husband's life at risk, the softly spoken Zeynure was not going to stay quiet. She had grown up seeing women having their head coverings ripped off in public 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 caring for 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 truth to the world. Everyone knows Uyghurs sent to China will be abused or die. They forced 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 rural areas with her grandparents, who were farmers. "I used to play with the sheep and poultry. I don't know if I will ever have that type of opportunity again. The relatives around the home and farm. It was too beautiful, like a scene from a story."

The second was as a Muslim Uyghur in Xinjiang, of vacations cut short by forced teachings of "communist songs" and being prohibited from going to the religious site or practicing Ramadan.

China says it is addressing extremism through 'managing unauthorized religious activities' and 'vocational education facilities', but other nations, including the US, say its actions amount to ethnic cleansing. Zeynure says she never felt able to practice her religious beliefs in Xinjiang. "Individuals who went on religious journey to Mecca in Saudi Arabia were detained and sent to prison and told they must have some issue in their mind.

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

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

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

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 Islamic country with many Muslims 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 exile. "We have many kids now in China growing up without Uyghur culture or dialect so we think it's our responsibility to not let it disappear," she says.

But their sense of safety at locating a place of safety abroad was short-lived. Beijing has become a prominent force in targeting dissidents living in exile through the use of electronic surveillance, intimidation and physical assault. But what Idris was faced was a more recent tool of control: using China's growing financial influence to pressure other nations to yield to its will, including arresting and extraditing Uyghurs it wants to silence.

Fighting for Release

After the phone call from Idris, and learning he had an Interpol red notice hanging over him, Zeynure knew she only had a limited time of opportunity to try to stop his deportation to China. She immediately contacted as many Uyghur advocacy organizations as she could find advertised online in the EU and the US and begged for assistance. She was fearless despite China having already shown a willingness to target the relatives of other targets.

Zeynure started demonstrating with her children at the diplomatic mission in Istanbul, and posting information on online platforms. To her surprise, copycat protests soon followed in Morocco demanding Idris's freedom. Moroccan officials were forced to issue a statement saying his deportation was a matter for the judicial system to determine.

In early August 2021, Interpol cancelled Idris's red notice after being urged to review his case by advocacy organizations. But that did not prevent a Moroccan court later ruling he should still be extradited to China. Zeynure says there was significant diplomatic pressure from Beijing, which made {little sense|