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In July 2021, Zeynure Hasan was at her residence in Turkey's largest city when she got a desperately anticipated phone call from her husband. It had been four painful days since their last communication, when he was getting ready to take a flight to Morocco. The silence had been difficult.

But the information her husband Idris shared was even worse. He informed her that upon arrival in Morocco, he had been detained and imprisoned. Authorities told him he would be sent back to China. "Reach out to anyone who can assist me," he pleaded, before the line went dead.

Life as Ethnic Minority in Turkey

Zeynure, 31 years old, and Idris, in his late thirties, are members of the mostly Muslim community, which constitutes about half of the population in China's western Xinjiang region. Over the past decade, over a 1,000,000 Uyghurs are believed to have been detained in so-called "re-education camps," where they faced abuse for commonplace acts like attending a mosque or using a hijab.

The pair had been among thousands of Uyghurs who escaped to Turkey during the 2010s. They hoped they would find safety in their new home, but quickly found they were wrong.

"Authorities informed me that the Beijing officials warned to close all its factories in the nation if Morocco freed him," she said.

After settling in Istanbul, Zeynure became an language instructor, while Idris started as a translator and artist, assisting to produce Uyghur media and publications. They had three children and enjoyed free to practice as followers of Islam.

But when one of Idris's close friends, who was employed in a library stocking Uyghur books, was detained in the mid-year of 2021, Idris became fearful. News indicated that Beijing was urging Turkey to extradite Uyghurs. Idris felt vulnerable due to his prior arrest, which he believed was linked to his work with advocates and promoting Uyghur culture. He chose 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 Mistake

Leaving Turkey proved to be a disastrous decision. At the Istanbul airport, border control officials pulled him aside for interrogation. "When he was eventually allowed to get on the plane, he told me how happy he was that they had let him go, but it felt like a set-up to me," she recalled. Her worst fears were realized when he was taken off the plane and detained by Moroccan authorities.

Over the last ten years, China has been using the international police agency Interpol to pursue political refugees and had asked for Idris to be added on the agency's high-priority "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, despite the consequences.

Parental Interference

Soon after learning of her husband's arrest, Zeynure received an surprising phone call from her parents in Xinjiang. She had been separated 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 chilling warning. "They told me, '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 persisted and told me not to do anything to help my husband. 'Don't do anything except caring for your children,' they told me. 'Don't say anything bad about China.'"

But with her husband's safety at risk, the quiet-mannered Zeynure was not going to stay quiet. She had grown up seeing women having their head coverings ripped off in open by the authorities and had been resolved to live in a country with religious freedom.

"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 Twitter. But I had to do something to rescue my husband – I had to reveal the reality to the international community. Everyone knows Uyghurs deported 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 happy days spent in the rural areas with her elders, who were agricultural workers. "I'd play with the sheep and chickens. I don't know if I will ever have that kind of chance again. The family around the home and land. It was too wonderful, like a picture from a story."

The second was as a Muslim Uyghur in Xinjiang, of vacations cut short by mandatory teachings of "political anthems" and being banned from going to the religious site or observing Ramadan.

China claims it is tackling extremism through 'managing illegal religious activities' and 'training facilities', but other nations, including the US, say its actions amount to genocide. Zeynure says she never felt able to follow her faith in Xinjiang. "People who went on pilgrimage to Mecca abroad were arrested and transferred to prison and told they must have some issue in their mind.

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

She eventually decided to depart China after returning home from university in another part of China to a increasing crackdown on religious freedoms in 2011. It was then that she was introduced to Idris by one of her school friends. "She knew we both had made the choice to go overseas and told us maybe we could get together and go as a group."

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 men at university who wanted to wed me, but Idris was unique."

Fresh Start in Turkey

Within 60 days they were married and prepared to leave for a new life in Turkey. They knew it was an Islamic country with many believers and Uyghurs already residing there, with a comparable language and common background. "It was like Uyghurs' second home," says Zeynure. As a educator and creative, they could also support the Uyghur population in diaspora. "We have many children 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 sense of safety at locating a secure location abroad was temporary. Beijing has become a global leader in targeting dissidents abroad through the use of monitoring, intimidation and physical assault. But what Idris was subjected to was a newer method of control: using China's growing financial influence to pressure other countries to yield to its will, including detaining and extraditing Uyghurs it wants to silence.

Campaigning for Freedom

After the call from Idris, and learning he had an Interpol red notice hanging over him, Zeynure knew she only had a limited time 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 shown a willingness to target the family members of other individuals.

Zeynure started protesting with her children at the Moroccan embassy in Istanbul, and sharing information on online platforms. To her surprise, copycat protests soon occurred in Morocco demanding Idris's release. Moroccan officials were forced to issue a statement saying his extradition was a matter for the courts to decide.

In early August 2021, Interpol withdrew Idris's alert after being pressed to reexamine his case by advocacy organizations. But that did not prevent a Moroccan court later deciding he should still be sent back to China. Zeynure says there was significant diplomatic pressure from Beijing, which made {little sense|