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In July 2021, Zeynure Hasan was at her home in Turkey's largest city when she got a long-awaited phone call from her husband. It had been four painful days since their last communication, when he was preparing to take a flight to Morocco. The silence had been torturous.

But the news her husband Idris delivered was even worse. He told her that upon arrival in Morocco, he had been taken into custody and jailed. Authorities informed him he would be extradited to China. "Contact everyone who can help me," he pleaded, before the line went silent.

Life as Ethnic Minority in Exile

The wife, 31 years old, and Idris, in his late thirties, are part of the Uyghur ethnic group, which constitutes about half of the population in China's north-western Xinjiang province. Over the past decade, over a million Uyghurs are estimated to have been imprisoned in alleged "re-education camps," where they faced abuse for commonplace actions like attending a place of worship or using a headscarf.

The pair had been among many of Uyghurs who escaped to Turkey during the 2010s. They thought they would find security in exile, but soon discovered they were mistaken.

"I was told that the Chinese government threatened to close all its factories in the country if Morocco released him," Zeynure said.

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure worked as an English teacher, while Idris started as a translator and artist, helping to publish Uyghur media and publications. They had a family of three kids and enjoyed free to live as Muslims.

But when one of Idris's best friends, who worked in a library stocking Uyghur books, was arrested in the mid-year of 2021, Idris became fearful. News indicated that Beijing was pressuring Turkey to deport Uyghurs. Idris felt at risk due to his prior arrest, which he believed was connected to his work with activists and promoting Uyghur culture. He decided to escape to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had expired, had to stay behind with the children until her husband could apply for a travel document for the whole family.

A Costly Error

Leaving Turkey turned out to be a terrible mistake. At the airport, immigration officials took Idris aside for interrogation. "After he was eventually allowed 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 said. Her worst fears 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 target dissidents and had requested for Idris to be added on the agency's high-priority "alert list." Zeynure says Turkish officials let him take the flight aware he would be apprehended upon arrival in Morocco.

What happened next would convince her to do what many Uyghurs dread most: challenge China, despite the consequences.

Family Interference

Soon after learning of her husband's detention, Zeynure received an unexpected 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 chilling message. "They told me, 'We know your husband is not with you. Perhaps we can assist you,'" Zeynure stated. "I knew there must be some police there with them and just acted like I didn't know anything. But they insisted 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 remain silent. She had grown up witnessing women having their head coverings forcibly removed in open by the police 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 Facebook or these platforms. But I had to do something to save my husband – I had to tell the truth to the world. Everyone knows Uyghurs sent to China will be tortured or killed. They pushed me to speak out."

Childhood in Xinjiang

Zeynure has different types of memories 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 animals and poultry. I don't know if I will ever have that kind of chance again. The relatives around the house and land. It was too beautiful, like a picture from a book."

The second was as a religious minority in Xinjiang, of vacations interrupted by forced teachings of "communist songs" and being prohibited from going to the religious site or practicing Ramadan.

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

"They wanted Uyghur people to abandon their faith and culture. They said 'you should believe in us, we provided you employment 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 increasing repression on beliefs in 2011. It was then that she was introduced to Idris by one of her classmates. "She was aware we both had taken the decision to go overseas and told us maybe we could get together and go as a group."

Zeynure says she was right away comforted by Idris. "I realized he was very honest and reserved, and couldn't be dishonest 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 married and ready to leave for a different existence in Turkey. They knew it was an Muslim-majority country with many believers and Uyghurs already living there, with a comparable language and shared background. "It felt like Uyghurs' alternative homeland," says Zeynure. As a teacher and creative, they could also help the Uyghur population in exile. "There are many children now in China growing up without Uyghur culture or dialect so we think it's our duty to not let it die out," she says.

But their sense of safety at finding a secure location overseas was short-lived. Beijing has become a global leader in targeting dissidents living in exile through the use of electronic surveillance, intimidation and violence. But what Idris was faced was a newer method of repression: using China's increasing economic leverage to force other countries to bend to its will, including arresting and extraditing Uyghurs it wants to suppress.

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 prevent his deportation to China. She immediately reached out to as many Uyghur support groups as she could find listed online in Europe and the US and begged for assistance. She was brave despite China having already demonstrated a readiness to go after the relatives 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 followed in Morocco calling for Idris's release. Moroccan officials were compelled to put out 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 stop a Moroccan court later deciding he should still be extradited to China. Zeynure says there was huge diplomatic pressure from Beijing, which made {little sense|