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In July 2021, Zeynure Hasan was at her residence in Istanbul when she got a desperately anticipated phone call from her husband. There had been four painful days since their last communication, when he was getting ready to take a flight to Morocco. The lack of communication had been unbearable.

But the news her husband Idris delivered was even worse. He told her that upon landing in Morocco, he had been detained and imprisoned. Authorities told him he would be sent back to China. "Call everyone who can help me," he pleaded, before the line went dead.

Existence as Ethnic Minority in Turkey

The wife, 31 years old, and Idris, in his late thirties, are part of the Uyghur ethnic group, which constitutes about 50% of the population in China's western Xinjiang province. Over the last ten years, over a 1,000,000 Uyghurs are believed to have been detained in alleged "vocational training camps," where they faced torture for commonplace actions like attending a place of worship or using a headscarf.

The pair had been among thousands of Uyghurs who fled to Turkey during the previous decade. They believed they would find safety in exile, but soon realized they were wrong.

"I was told that the Chinese government warned to shut down all its industrial plants in the nation if Morocco freed him," she explained.

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure became an language instructor, while Idris began as a translator and artist, helping to produce Uyghur news and publications. They had three children and felt able to live as Muslims.

But when one of Idris's close friends, who was employed in a book repository stocking Uyghur books, was detained in the summer of 2021, Idris became fearful. News indicated that Beijing was pressuring Turkey to deport Uyghurs. Idris felt vulnerable due to his previous arrest, which he suspected 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 visa for the whole family.

A Terrible Error

Departing Turkey proved to be a terrible mistake. At the airport, border control officials pulled him aside for interrogation. "After he was finally permitted to get on the plane, he told me how happy he was that they had let him go, but it felt like a trap to me," she said. Her worst fears were realized when he was taken off the plane and arrested by border officials.

Over the past decade, China has been utilizing the global police agency Interpol to pursue dissidents and had requested for Idris to be added on the agency's most-wanted "alert list." Zeynure claims Turkish officials let him board the flight knowing he would be arrested upon arrival in Morocco.

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

Family Pressure

Shortly after hearing 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 visited her in Turkey in 2016 and were jailed for a few months upon their going back to China.

Her parents had a disturbing message. "They told me, 'We know your husband is not with you. Perhaps we can assist you,'" Zeynure explained. "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 caring for your children,' they told me. 'Don't say anything bad about China.'"

But with her husband's safety at stake, the quiet-mannered 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 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 Facebook or Twitter. But I had to do something to rescue my husband – I had to reveal the reality to the world. Everyone knows Uyghurs sent to China will be abused or killed. They forced me to raise my voice."

Growing Up in Xinjiang

Zeynure has different types of recollections of her early years in Xinjiang. The first was of happy days spent in the rural areas with her elders, who were agricultural workers. "I'd play with the sheep and poultry. I don't know if I will ever have that kind of chance again. The relatives 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 forced teachings of "communist songs" and being prohibited from attending the mosque or observing Ramadan.

China claims it is addressing radicalism through 'controlling illegal religious activities' and 'vocational education centers', but other countries, including the US, say its actions constitute genocide. Zeynure says she never felt free 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 problem in their brain.

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

She eventually decided to leave China after coming back home from university in Eastern China to a growing repression on beliefs in 2011. It was then that she was connected to Idris by one of her classmates. "She was aware we both had made the decision to go overseas and told us maybe we could get together and go together."

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

A New Life in Turkey

Within 60 days they were wed and ready to move 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 common ethnicity. "It felt like Uyghurs' alternative homeland," says Zeynure. As a educator and creative, they could also help the Uyghur population in exile. "There are many kids now in China growing up without Uyghur culture or language 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 short-lived. Beijing has become a prominent force in pursuing critics living in exile through the use of electronic surveillance, threats and physical assault. But what Idris was subjected to was a more recent tool of control: using China's growing economic leverage to pressure other countries to yield to its demands, including arresting and deporting Uyghurs it wants to suppress.

Campaigning for Freedom

After the phone call from Idris, and learning he had an Interpol red notice against him, Zeynure knew she only had a limited time of chance to try to prevent his extradition to China. She right away contacted as many Uyghur support groups as she could find advertised online in Europe and the US and begged for help. She was brave despite China having already demonstrated a willingness to go after the family members of other individuals.

Zeynure started demonstrating with her children at the Moroccan embassy in Istanbul, and sharing updates on online platforms. To her surprise, copycat protests soon followed in Morocco calling for Idris's release. Moroccan officials were forced to issue a announcement saying his extradition was a issue for the courts to decide.

In early August 2021, Interpol cancelled Idris's alert after being pressed to reexamine 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 huge diplomatic pressure from Beijing, which made {little sense|