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In the summer of 2021, a Uyghur woman named Zeynure was at her home in Turkey's largest city when she got a long-awaited phone call from her husband. It had been four stressful days since their last contact, when he was preparing to board a flight to Casablanca. The silence had been unbearable.

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

Existence as Uyghurs in Turkey

Zeynure, 31 years old, and Idris, in his late thirties, are members of the mostly Muslim ethnic group, which constitutes about 50% of the residents in China's western Xinjiang province. Over the past decade, over a million Uyghurs are believed to have been imprisoned in alleged "vocational training camps," where they faced torture for ordinary acts like attending a mosque or wearing a headscarf.

The pair had been among many of Uyghurs who escaped to Turkey during the previous decade. They hoped they would find safety in their new home, but quickly found they were mistaken.

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

After settling in Istanbul, Zeynure became an language instructor, while Idris started as a interpreter and artist, helping to produce Uyghur media and publications. They had three children and enjoyed able to live as Muslims.

But when one of Idris's close friends, who worked in a book repository stocking Uyghur books, was arrested in the summer of 2021, Idris became fearful. News indicated that Beijing was urging Turkey to deport Uyghurs. Idris felt at risk due to his previous arrest, which he suspected was linked 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 whole family.

A Costly Error

Departing Turkey proved to be a disastrous mistake. At the airport, immigration officials took Idris 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 said. Her worst fears were realized when he was removed from the plane and detained by border officials.

Over the past decade, China has been utilizing the global police agency Interpol to target political refugees and had requested for Idris to be added 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 convince her to do what many Uyghurs dread most: defy China, regardless of the consequences.

Family Pressure

Soon after hearing of her husband's arrest, Zeynure received an surprising phone call from her parents 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 told me, 'We know your husband is not with you. Maybe we can help you,'" she stated. "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. 'Avoid saying anything bad about China.'"

But with her husband's safety at risk, 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.

"Before 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 rescue my husband – I had to reveal the truth to the world. Everyone knows Uyghurs deported to China will be tortured or killed. They forced me to raise my voice."

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 animals and poultry. I don't know if I will ever have that type of chance 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 prohibited from going to the mosque or practicing Ramadan.

China says it is addressing radicalism through 'controlling unauthorized religious activities' and 'training facilities', but other nations, including the US, say its actions constitute ethnic cleansing. Zeynure says she never felt free to practice her religious beliefs 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 religion and heritage. They said 'you should believe in us, we gave you employment and this good living here'," says Zeynure.

She finally decided to leave China after coming back 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 school friends. "She was aware we both had made the choice to go overseas and told us maybe we could meet and go together."

Zeynure says she was immediately reassured by Idris. "I realized 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 wed me, but Idris was different."

A New Life in Turkey

Within 60 days they were wed and ready to move for a different existence in Turkey. They knew it was an Muslim-majority country with many Muslims and Uyghurs already residing there, with a similar language and common ethnicity. "It felt like Uyghurs' alternative homeland," says Zeynure. As a educator and creative, they could also support the Uyghur population in exile. "We have many kids now in China growing up without Uyghur traditions or dialect so we think it's our duty to not let it die out," she says.

But their relief at finding a secure location overseas was temporary. Beijing has become a global leader in pursuing dissidents living in exile through the use of electronic surveillance, intimidation and violence. But what Idris was faced was a newer tool of repression: using China's increasing economic leverage to pressure other nations to bend to its will, including arresting and deporting Uyghurs it wants to silence.

Fighting for Release

After the call from Idris, and discovering he had an Interpol alert against him, Zeynure knew she only had a limited time of opportunity to try to prevent his extradition to China. She immediately contacted as many Uyghur support groups 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 willingness to target the relatives of other individuals.

Zeynure started demonstrating with her children at the diplomatic mission in Istanbul, and sharing updates on online platforms. To her surprise, similar protests soon occurred in Morocco demanding Idris's release. Moroccan officials were forced to put out a announcement saying his extradition was a matter for the courts to determine.

In the start of August 2021, Interpol withdrew 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 sent back to China. Zeynure says there was significant diplomatic pressure from Beijing, which made {little sense|