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In the summer of 2021, a Uyghur woman named Zeynure was at her residence in Istanbul when she answered a desperately anticipated phone call from her husband. It had been four agonizing days since their last communication, when he was preparing to take a flight to Morocco. The lack of communication had been unbearable.

But the news her husband Idris shared was even worse. He explained that upon landing in Morocco, he had been taken into custody and jailed. Authorities told him he would be extradited to China. "Call anyone who can assist me," he pleaded, before the line went silent.

Existence as Ethnic Minority in Turkey

Zeynure, 31 years old, and Idris, 37, are members of the Uyghur community, which makes up 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 imprisoned in so-called "re-education camps," where they faced torture for commonplace actions like going to a mosque or using a headscarf.

The pair had joined thousands of Uyghurs who escaped to Turkey during the previous decade. They thought they would find safety in exile, but quickly realized they were wrong.

"Authorities informed me that the Chinese government warned to shut down all its factories in the country if Morocco released him," Zeynure explained.

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure worked as an language instructor, while Idris started as a interpreter and designer, helping to produce Uyghur news and printed works. They had a family of three kids and enjoyed able to practice as followers of Islam.

But when one of Idris's close friends, who was employed 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 arrest, which he suspected was connected to his work with advocates and supporting Uyghur heritage. He decided to escape to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had lapsed, had to remain with the children until her husband could apply for a travel document for the whole family.

A Costly Mistake

Departing Turkey proved to be a terrible mistake. At the airport, border control officials took Idris aside for interrogation. "When he was finally permitted 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 recalled. Her worst fears were confirmed when he was taken off the plane and arrested by border officials.

Over the last ten years, China has been utilizing the international police agency Interpol to pursue dissidents and had requested for Idris to be placed on the agency's high-priority "red notice list." Zeynure claims Turkish officials allowed him take the flight aware he would be apprehended upon landing in Morocco.

What followed would convince her to do what many Uyghurs dread most: defy China, despite the consequences.

Parental Pressure

Soon after learning of her husband's detention, Zeynure got an unexpected phone call from her family in Xinjiang. She had been separated from her relatives since they came to see her in Turkey in 2016 and were imprisoned for a few months upon their return to China.

Her parents had a chilling message. "They told me, 'We know your husband is not with you. Maybe we can help 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 feeding 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 remain silent. She had grown up seeing women having their hijabs forcibly removed in public by the authorities 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 looking after my family; I didn't even have Facebook or Twitter. But I had to do something to save my husband – I had to reveal the reality to the world. Everyone knows Uyghurs deported to China will be tortured or die. They pushed me to raise my voice."

Growing Up in Xinjiang

Zeynure has two distinct types of recollections of her childhood in Xinjiang. The first was of blissful days spent in the rural areas with her grandparents, who were farmers. "I'd play with the animals and poultry. I don't know if I will ever have that kind of opportunity again. The family around the house 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 "political anthems" and being banned from going to the mosque or practicing Ramadan.

China claims it is addressing extremism through 'controlling unauthorized religious activities' and 'training centers', but other nations, including the US, say its actions amount to genocide. Zeynure says she never felt free to practice her faith in Xinjiang. "Individuals who went on religious journey to Mecca in Saudi Arabia were detained and transferred to prison and told they must have some issue in their mind.

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

She eventually decided to depart China after coming back home from college in another part of China to a growing 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 choice 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 truthful and shy, 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 married and prepared to leave for a new life in Turkey. They knew it was an Muslim-majority country with many believers and Uyghurs already living there, with a similar language and shared background. "It was like Uyghurs' second home," says Zeynure. As a educator and designer, they could also help the Uyghur population in diaspora. "We have many children now in China growing up without Uyghur culture or language so we think it's our responsibility to not let it disappear," she says.

But their sense of safety at finding a place of safety abroad was temporary. Beijing has become a prominent force in targeting dissidents abroad through the use of electronic surveillance, threats and physical assault. But what Idris was faced was a more recent tool of repression: using China's increasing economic leverage to force other nations to bend to its will, including detaining and deporting Uyghurs it wants to silence.

Fighting for Release

After the 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 on the internet in the EU and the US and pleaded for help. She was fearless despite China having already shown a readiness to target the relatives of other individuals.

Zeynure started protesting with her children at the diplomatic mission in Istanbul, and posting updates on social media. To her amazement, similar protests soon followed in Morocco calling for Idris's release. Moroccan officials were forced to issue a statement saying his deportation was a issue for the judicial system to decide.

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