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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 contact, when he was getting ready to take a flight to Morocco. The silence had been unbearable.

But the information her husband Idris revealed was more alarming. He explained that upon arrival in Morocco, he had been detained and jailed. Authorities stated he would be extradited to China. "Contact anyone who can assist me," he pleaded, before the line went dead.

Life as Ethnic Minority in Turkey

Zeynure, in her early thirties, and Idris, in his late thirties, are part of the mostly Muslim ethnic group, which constitutes about half of the population in China's north-western Xinjiang region. Over the past decade, over a million Uyghurs are reported to have been imprisoned in alleged "vocational training camps," where they faced torture for commonplace actions like attending a place of worship or wearing a hijab.

The couple had joined many of Uyghurs who fled to Turkey during the previous decade. They thought they would find security in their new home, but quickly found they were wrong.

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

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure worked as an English teacher, while Idris started as a translator and artist, assisting to produce Uyghur news and publications. They had three children and enjoyed able to practice as followers of Islam.

But when one of Idris's best 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 pressuring Turkey to extradite Uyghurs. Idris felt vulnerable due to his prior detention, which he suspected was connected to his work with activists and supporting Uyghur culture. He chose to escape to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had expired, had to remain with the children until her husband could request a visa for the family.

A Terrible Mistake

Leaving Turkey turned out to be a terrible decision. At the airport, immigration officials took Idris aside for questioning. "When he was finally 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 arrested by Moroccan authorities.

Over the past decade, China has been utilizing the global police agency Interpol to pursue dissidents and had asked for Idris to be placed on the agency's high-priority "alert list." Zeynure says Turkish officials let him board the flight aware he would be apprehended upon arrival in Morocco.

What followed would lead her to do what many Uyghurs fear most: challenge China, despite the consequences.

Family Pressure

Shortly after hearing of her husband's arrest, Zeynure received an surprising phone call from her family in Xinjiang. She had been cut off from her relatives since they visited her in Turkey in 2016 and were imprisoned for a few months upon their going back to China.

Her parents had a disturbing warning. "They said, 'We know your husband is not with you. Maybe we can assist you,'" Zeynure stated. "I knew 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 negative about China.'"

But with her husband's life at risk, the softly spoken Zeynure was not going to remain silent. She had been raised seeing women having their head coverings forcibly removed 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 looking after 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 tell the reality 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 different types of recollections of her early years in Xinjiang. The first was of happy days spent in the rural areas with her grandparents, who were agricultural workers. "I used to play with the sheep and poultry. I don't know if I will ever have that kind of opportunity 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 school holidays cut short by mandatory teachings of "political anthems" and being banned from going to the religious site or observing Ramadan.

China says it is addressing radicalism through 'controlling illegal religious activities' and 'training centers', but other countries, including the US, say its actions constitute genocide. Zeynure says she never felt free to follow her religious beliefs in Xinjiang. "People who went on religious journey to Mecca abroad were arrested and sent to prison and told they must have some issue in their brain.

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

She finally decided to leave China after coming back home from college in Eastern China to a increasing repression on beliefs in 2011. It was then that she was introduced to Idris by one of her classmates. "She knew we both had made the choice to go abroad and told us perhaps we could get together and go together."

Zeynure says she was right away comforted by Idris. "I realized 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 unique."

Fresh Start in Turkey

Within two months they were married and ready to move for a new life in Turkey. They knew it was an Islamic country with many Muslims and Uyghurs already residing there, with a comparable tongue and shared background. "It was like Uyghurs' alternative homeland," says Zeynure. As a teacher and creative, they could also help the Uyghur population in diaspora. "There are many children now in China growing up without Uyghur traditions 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 temporary. Beijing has become a prominent force in pursuing critics living in exile through the use of electronic surveillance, threats and violence. But what Idris was faced was a more recent method of control: using China's increasing economic leverage to force other countries to yield to its demands, including detaining and extraditing Uyghurs it wants to suppress.

Campaigning for Freedom

After the phone call from Idris, and learning he had an Interpol red notice hanging over him, Zeynure knew she only had a short window of chance to try to stop his deportation to China. She immediately reached out to as many Uyghur advocacy organizations as she could find listed online in the EU and the US and begged for help. She was fearless despite China having already demonstrated a willingness to target 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 surprise, copycat protests soon followed in Morocco calling for Idris's release. Moroccan officials were compelled to put out a announcement saying his extradition was a issue for the courts to decide.

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