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In July 2021, a Uyghur woman named Zeynure was at her home in Istanbul when she answered a desperately anticipated phone call from her husband. There had been four agonizing days since their last contact, when he was preparing to take a flight to Casablanca. The lack of communication had been torturous.

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

Life as Uyghurs in Turkey

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 western Xinjiang region. Over the last ten years, over a 1,000,000 Uyghurs are reported to have been imprisoned in so-called "re-education camps," where they faced abuse for commonplace acts like going to a mosque or wearing a hijab.

The pair had joined many of Uyghurs who escaped to Turkey during the 2010s. They hoped they would find refuge in exile, but quickly found they were wrong.

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

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure worked as an language instructor, while Idris started as a translator and artist, helping to produce Uyghur media and publications. They had a family of three kids and enjoyed able to live as followers of Islam.

But when one of Idris's best friends, who worked in a book repository stocking Uyghur books, was detained in the summer of 2021, Idris became fearful. Reports indicated that Beijing was urging Turkey to extradite Uyghurs. Idris felt at risk due to his prior detention, which he believed was connected to his work with activists and supporting Uyghur heritage. He decided to flee to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had lapsed, had to remain with the children until her husband could request a travel document for the family.

A Terrible Mistake

Leaving Turkey proved to be a disastrous mistake. At the airport, immigration officials took Idris aside for questioning. "When he was eventually allowed to board the plane, he told me how happy he was that they had released him, but it felt like a trap to me," Zeynure said. Her deepest concerns were realized when he was taken off the plane and detained 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 added on the agency's high-priority "red notice list." Zeynure claims Turkish officials let him board the flight knowing he would be apprehended upon landing in Morocco.

What followed would convince her to do what many Uyghurs dread most: challenge China, regardless of the risks.

Parental Pressure

Soon after learning of her husband's arrest, Zeynure got an surprising phone call from her parents in Xinjiang. She had been separated from her family 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,'" Zeynure 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. 'Don't say anything bad about China.'"

But with her husband's life at stake, the softly spoken Zeynure was not going to stay quiet. She had grown up seeing women having their hijabs ripped off in open by the police 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 caring for my family; I didn't even have Facebook or these platforms. But I had to do something to save my husband – I had to tell the reality to the world. Everyone knows Uyghurs deported to China will be abused or die. They forced me to speak out."

Childhood in Xinjiang

Zeynure has different types of recollections of her early years in Xinjiang. The first was of blissful days spent in the rural areas with her grandparents, who were agricultural workers. "I used to play with the sheep and chickens. 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 Muslim Uyghur in Xinjiang, of school holidays interrupted by forced teachings of "political anthems" and being prohibited from going to the religious site or practicing Ramadan.

China claims it is addressing extremism 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 free to practice her faith in Xinjiang. "People who went on pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia were detained and transferred to prison and told they must have some problem in their mind.

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

She eventually decided to depart China after returning home from university in Eastern China to a growing crackdown 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 choice to go overseas 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 honest and reserved, and couldn't tell lies or do anything wrong. There were some Uyghur men at university who wanted to wed me, but Idris was different."

Fresh Start in Turkey

Within 60 days they were wed and ready to move for a different existence in Turkey. They knew it was an Islamic country with many Muslims and Uyghurs already living there, with a comparable language and shared background. "It was like Uyghurs' second home," says Zeynure. As a educator and designer, they could also help the community in exile. "We have many children now in China being raised without Uyghur traditions or language so we think it's our duty to not let it disappear," she says.

But their relief at locating a secure location abroad was temporary. Beijing has become a prominent force in pursuing dissidents living in exile through the use of monitoring, threats and violence. But what Idris was faced was a newer method of repression: using China's increasing financial influence to force other countries to bend to its demands, including detaining 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 short window of opportunity 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 begged for assistance. She was fearless despite China having already demonstrated a willingness to target the family members of other individuals.

Zeynure started demonstrating with her children at the Moroccan embassy in Istanbul, and sharing information on online platforms. To her amazement, similar protests soon followed in Morocco demanding Idris's release. Moroccan officials were forced to issue a announcement saying his deportation was a matter for the courts to decide.

In early August 2021, Interpol cancelled Idris's alert after being urged to reexamine 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 significant diplomatic pressure from Beijing, which made {little sense|