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In July 2021, Zeynure Hasan was at her residence in Turkey's largest city when she answered a long-awaited phone call from her husband. There had been four stressful days since their last communication, when he was preparing to board a flight to Casablanca. The lack of communication had been difficult.

But the information her husband Idris delivered was even worse. He explained that upon landing in Morocco, he had been arrested and imprisoned. Authorities told him he would be deported to China. "Call everyone who can rescue me," he urged, before the line went dead.

Life as Uyghurs in Exile

The wife, 31 years old, and Idris, 37, are part of the Uyghur ethnic group, which makes up about 50% of the residents in China's north-western Xinjiang region. Over the last ten years, more than a 1,000,000 Uyghurs are estimated to have been detained in so-called "re-education camps," where they faced mistreatment for commonplace acts like attending a place of worship or wearing a headscarf.

The pair had been among thousands of Uyghurs who escaped to Turkey during the previous decade. They believed they would find refuge in their new home, but quickly discovered they were mistaken.

"I was told that the Chinese government warned to close all its factories in the country if Morocco freed him," she explained.

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

But when one of Idris's best friends, who worked in a book repository containing Uyghur books, was arrested in the summer of 2021, Idris became fearful. News 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 decided to flee 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 Costly Error

Departing Turkey proved to be a terrible decision. At the Istanbul airport, border control officials pulled him aside for questioning. "When he was finally allowed to board the plane, he told me how relieved he was that they had let him go, but it felt like a trap to me," Zeynure recalled. Her deepest concerns were confirmed when he was taken off the plane and arrested by Moroccan authorities.

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

What happened next would lead her to do what many Uyghurs dread most: defy China, despite the consequences.

Parental Pressure

Shortly after learning of her husband's arrest, Zeynure received an unexpected phone call from her family in Xinjiang. She had been cut off from her relatives 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 disturbing message. "They said, 'We know your husband is not with you. Perhaps we can assist you,'" she explained. "I realized there must be some police there with them and just pretended like I didn't know anything. But they persisted 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 negative about China.'"

But with her husband's life at stake, the softly spoken Zeynure was not going to remain silent. She had grown up seeing women having their hijabs forcibly removed in open by the authorities 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 Facebook or these platforms. But I had to do something to save my husband – I had to reveal the reality to the world. Everyone knows Uyghurs sent to China will be tortured 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 countryside with her elders, who were agricultural workers. "I used to play with the animals and chickens. I don't know if I will ever have that kind of opportunity again. The relatives around the house and farm. It was too wonderful, like a picture from a story."

The second was as a Muslim Uyghur in Xinjiang, of school holidays interrupted by forced teachings of "political anthems" 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 able to follow her religious beliefs in Xinjiang. "Individuals who went on religious journey to Mecca abroad were detained and sent to jail and told they must have some issue in their mind.

"They aimed for Uyghur people to forget their faith and culture. They said 'you should believe in us, we provided you jobs and this good living here'," says Zeynure.

She finally decided to depart China after coming back home from college in another part of 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 taken the decision to go abroad and told us maybe we could get together and go together."

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

A New Life in Turkey

Within 60 days they were married and prepared to leave for a different existence in Turkey. They knew it was an Muslim-majority country with many believers and Uyghurs already living there, with a similar language and common ethnicity. "It felt like Uyghurs' second home," says Zeynure. As a teacher and creative, they could also support the Uyghur population in exile. "There are many kids now in China being raised without Uyghur culture or language so we think it's our responsibility to not let it die out," she says.

But their sense of safety at locating a place of safety overseas was short-lived. Beijing has become a global leader in pursuing dissidents abroad through the use of monitoring, intimidation and violence. But what Idris was faced was a newer tool of control: using China's increasing financial influence to pressure other nations to yield to its demands, including arresting and deporting Uyghurs it wants to silence.

Campaigning for Release

After the phone call from Idris, and discovering he had an Interpol alert hanging over him, Zeynure knew she only had a short window of chance to try to prevent his extradition to China. She immediately reached out to as many Uyghur advocacy organizations as she could find advertised online in the EU and the US and pleaded for help. She was fearless despite China having already shown a readiness to go after the family members of other targets.

Zeynure started protesting with her children at the diplomatic mission in Istanbul, and posting updates on online platforms. To her amazement, copycat protests soon followed in Morocco demanding Idris's freedom. Moroccan officials were compelled to issue a announcement saying his extradition was a issue for the judicial system to decide.

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