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In the summer of 2021, a Uyghur woman named Zeynure was at her residence in Turkey's largest city when she answered a desperately anticipated phone call from her husband. It 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 torturous.

But the information her husband Idris shared was more devastating. He explained that upon landing in Morocco, he had been detained and jailed. Authorities told him he would be extradited to China. "Call everyone who can assist me," he said, before the line went dead.

Existence as Ethnic Minority in Exile

The wife, 31 years old, and Idris, 37, are members of the Uyghur community, which makes up about half of the residents in China's north-western Xinjiang region. Over the past decade, over a million Uyghurs are believed to have been detained in alleged "re-education camps," where they faced mistreatment for commonplace actions like going to a mosque or wearing a headscarf.

The couple had joined many of Uyghurs who fled to Turkey during the 2010s. They thought they would find safety in exile, but soon discovered they were wrong.

"I was told that the Beijing officials threatened to shut down all its factories in the country if Morocco freed him," she stated.

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure became an English teacher, while Idris began as a translator and artist, assisting to produce Uyghur media and printed works. They had a family of three kids and felt free to practice as followers of Islam.

But when one of Idris's close friends, who was employed in a library containing Uyghur books, was detained in the mid-year of 2021, Idris became fearful. Reports indicated that Beijing was pressuring Turkey to deport Uyghurs. Idris felt vulnerable due to his prior 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 lapsed, had to stay behind with the children until her husband could apply for a travel document for the family.

A Costly Mistake

Departing Turkey proved to be a terrible mistake. At the Istanbul airport, immigration officials took Idris aside for questioning. "After he was finally allowed to board the plane, he told me how relieved he was that they had released him, but it felt like a set-up to me," she said. 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 utilizing the international police agency Interpol to target dissidents 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 knowing 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 risks.

Parental Pressure

Soon after hearing of her husband's detention, Zeynure got an surprising phone call from her family in Xinjiang. She had been cut off from her family since they came to see her in Turkey in 2016 and were jailed for several months upon their return to China.

Her parents had a chilling message. "They told me, 'We know your husband is not with you. Perhaps we can help you,'" Zeynure explained. "I realized there must be some authorities 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. 'Don't do anything except feeding your children,' they told me. 'Avoid saying anything negative about China.'"

But with her husband's life at stake, the quiet-mannered Zeynure was not going to remain silent. She had grown up witnessing women having their hijabs ripped off in public by the police and had been determined to live in a country with religious freedom.

"Before my husband was arrested in Morocco, I didn't do anything. I was just caring for my family; I didn't even have social media or these platforms. But I had to do something to save my husband – I had to reveal the reality to the international community. Everyone knows Uyghurs sent to China will be abused or die. They pushed me to speak out."

Growing Up in Xinjiang

Zeynure has two distinct types of recollections of her early years in Xinjiang. The first was of happy days spent in the countryside with her elders, who were agricultural workers. "I used to play with the animals and poultry. I don't know if I will ever have that kind of opportunity again. The family around the home and farm. It was too wonderful, like a picture from a book."

The second was as a religious minority in Xinjiang, of vacations interrupted by mandatory teachings of "communist songs" and being banned from attending the religious site or practicing Ramadan.

China claims it is tackling extremism through 'managing illegal religious activities' and 'vocational education facilities', but other nations, including the US, say its actions constitute ethnic cleansing. Zeynure says she never felt able to practice her religious beliefs in Xinjiang. "Individuals who went on pilgrimage 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 abandon their faith and culture. They said 'you should believe in us, we gave you employment and this beautiful life here'," says Zeynure.

She finally decided to leave China after returning home from college in Eastern China to a increasing repression on religious freedoms in 2011. It was then that she was connected to Idris by one of her classmates. "She was aware 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 realized he was very truthful and shy, and couldn't tell lies or do anything bad. There were some Uyghur boys 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 Islamic country with many believers and Uyghurs already residing there, with a similar language and shared background. "It was like Uyghurs' alternative homeland," says Zeynure. As a teacher and designer, they could also support the community in diaspora. "We have many children now in China growing up without Uyghur traditions 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 overseas was short-lived. Beijing has become a prominent force in targeting dissidents living in exile through the use of electronic surveillance, intimidation and physical assault. But what Idris was faced was a more recent method of repression: using China's increasing financial influence to pressure other nations to yield to its demands, including detaining and extraditing Uyghurs it wants to silence.

Campaigning for Release

After the 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 stop his deportation to China. She right away reached out to as many Uyghur advocacy organizations as she could find listed online in Europe and the US and pleaded for assistance. She was fearless despite China having already demonstrated a willingness to target the family members of other individuals.

Zeynure started protesting with her children at the diplomatic mission in Istanbul, and posting information on social media. To her amazement, copycat protests soon followed in Morocco demanding Idris's freedom. Moroccan officials were compelled to issue a statement saying his extradition was a matter for the courts to decide.

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