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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 long-awaited phone call from her husband. There had been four stressful days since their last communication, when he was getting ready to take a flight to Morocco. The silence had been unbearable.

But the information her husband Idris shared was even worse. He told her that upon landing in Morocco, he had been taken into custody and imprisoned. Authorities told him he would be deported to China. "Call anyone who can rescue me," he pleaded, before the line went dead.

Existence as Ethnic Minority in Exile

The wife, 31 years old, and Idris, in his late thirties, are members of the Uyghur ethnic group, which makes up about 50% of the residents in China's north-western Xinjiang region. Over the last ten years, more than a 1,000,000 Uyghurs are believed to have been imprisoned in alleged "re-education camps," where they faced mistreatment for ordinary actions like going to a mosque or wearing a headscarf.

The couple had been among thousands of Uyghurs who escaped to Turkey during the 2010s. They thought they would find refuge in exile, but soon realized they were wrong.

"Authorities informed me that the Chinese government warned to close all its industrial plants in the nation if Morocco freed him," she said.

After settling in Istanbul, Zeynure worked as an language instructor, while Idris started as a translator and artist, assisting to publish Uyghur news and printed works. They had three children and felt 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 mid-year of 2021, Idris became fearful. Reports indicated that Beijing was urging Turkey to extradite Uyghurs. Idris felt vulnerable due to his prior detention, which he believed was linked to his work with activists and supporting Uyghur heritage. He decided to escape 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 Terrible Error

Leaving Turkey turned out to be a terrible decision. At the Istanbul airport, border control officials pulled him aside for questioning. "When he was finally allowed to get on the plane, he told me how happy he was that they had released him, but it felt like a set-up to me," she recalled. Her deepest concerns were confirmed when he was taken off the plane and arrested by Moroccan authorities.

Over the past decade, China has been utilizing the international police agency Interpol to pursue dissidents and had asked for Idris to be placed on the agency's high-priority "alert list." Zeynure says Turkish officials allowed him take the flight knowing he would be arrested upon arrival in Morocco.

What happened next would convince her to do what many Uyghurs dread most: defy China, regardless of the risks.

Family Interference

Soon after hearing 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 came to see her in Turkey in 2016 and were jailed for a few months upon their going back to China.

Her parents had a disturbing warning. "They said, 'We know your husband is not with you. Maybe we can help you,'" Zeynure 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 feeding your children,' they told me. 'Don't say anything negative about China.'"

But with her husband's safety at risk, the softly spoken Zeynure was not going to remain silent. 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.

"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 rescue my husband – I had to tell the truth to the international community. Everyone knows Uyghurs sent to China will be abused 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 elders, who were agricultural workers. "I'd play with the animals and chickens. I don't know if I will ever have that kind of opportunity again. The relatives around the house and land. 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 "communist songs" and being banned from going to the religious site or observing Ramadan.

China claims it is tackling extremism through 'managing illegal religious activities' and 'training centers', but other countries, including the US, say its actions constitute ethnic cleansing. Zeynure says she never felt able to follow her faith in Xinjiang. "People who went on religious journey to Mecca abroad were detained and transferred to prison and told they must have some issue in their mind.

"They aimed for Uyghur people to forget their religion and heritage. They said 'you should trust in us, we provided you employment and this beautiful living here'," says Zeynure.

She eventually decided to depart China after returning home from college in another part of China to a increasing crackdown on religious freedoms in 2011. It was then that she was introduced 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 as a group."

Zeynure says she was immediately comforted by Idris. "I realized he was very truthful and reserved, and couldn't be dishonest or do anything wrong. There were some Uyghur boys at university who wanted to wed me, but Idris was different."

Fresh Start in Turkey

Within 60 days they were married and ready to move for a new life in Turkey. They knew it was an Muslim-majority country with many believers and Uyghurs already residing there, with a similar language and shared ethnicity. "It was like Uyghurs' second home," says Zeynure. As a teacher and designer, they could also help the Uyghur population in diaspora. "There are many kids now in China growing up without Uyghur culture or dialect so we think it's our responsibility to not let it disappear," she says.

But their relief at finding a secure location overseas was temporary. Beijing has become a prominent force in targeting critics living in exile through the use of monitoring, intimidation and violence. But what Idris was faced was a more recent method of control: using China's increasing economic leverage to pressure other nations to bend to its demands, including detaining and extraditing Uyghurs it wants to silence.

Fighting for Freedom

After the call from Idris, and discovering 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 the EU and the US and pleaded for help. She was brave 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 online platforms. To her surprise, similar protests soon followed in Morocco demanding Idris's freedom. Moroccan officials were forced to issue a statement saying his extradition was a matter for the courts to determine.

In the start of August 2021, Interpol withdrew Idris's red notice after being pressed to review his case by advocacy organizations. 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|