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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 received a long-awaited phone call from her husband. There had been four stressful days since their last contact, when he was getting ready to board a flight to Casablanca. The silence had been difficult.

But the update her husband Idris delivered was even worse. He explained that upon landing in Morocco, he had been arrested and imprisoned. Authorities told him he would be deported to China. "Reach out to everyone who can help me," he urged, before the line went dead.

Existence as Ethnic Minority in Exile

Zeynure, 31 years old, and Idris, 37, are part of the mostly Muslim ethnic group, which makes up about half of the population in China's western Xinjiang province. Over the past decade, over a million Uyghurs are estimated to have been imprisoned in alleged "vocational training camps," where they faced abuse for commonplace acts like attending a mosque or wearing a hijab.

The couple had been among thousands of Uyghurs who escaped to Turkey during the previous decade. They thought they would find security in their new home, but soon found they were mistaken.

"I was told that the Beijing officials warned to shut down all its factories in the nation if Morocco released him," Zeynure said.

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure became an language instructor, while Idris began as a interpreter and artist, helping to publish Uyghur news and printed works. They had a family of three kids and felt able to practice as followers of Islam.

But when one of Idris's best friends, who was employed in a library containing Uyghur books, was arrested in the summer of 2021, Idris became fearful. Reports indicated that Beijing was pressuring Turkey to extradite Uyghurs. Idris felt at risk due to his previous arrest, which he believed was linked to his work with advocates and supporting Uyghur heritage. He chose to flee to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had lapsed, had to remain with the children until her husband could request a visa for the family.

A Costly Error

Leaving Turkey turned out to be a terrible decision. At the airport, immigration officials pulled him aside for questioning. "When he was eventually permitted to board the plane, he told me how happy he was that they had let him go, but it felt like a trap to me," Zeynure said. Her worst fears were realized when he was removed from the plane and detained by Moroccan authorities.

Over the past decade, China has been using the global police agency Interpol to target dissidents and had requested for Idris to be placed on the agency's high-priority "red notice list." Zeynure claims Turkish officials let him take the flight knowing he would be apprehended upon arrival in Morocco.

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

Parental Interference

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

Her parents had a chilling warning. "They said, 'We know your husband is not with you. Perhaps we can help you,'" she stated. "I realized 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 feeding your children,' they told me. 'Avoid saying anything bad about China.'"

But with her husband's life at stake, the softly spoken Zeynure was not going to remain silent. She had been raised seeing women having their head coverings forcibly removed in public by the police and had been determined 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 Twitter. 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 killed. They pushed me to raise my voice."

Childhood in Xinjiang

Zeynure has two distinct types of recollections of her childhood 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 sheep and poultry. I don't know if I will ever have that kind of opportunity again. The family around the home and land. It was too beautiful, like a scene from a story."

The second was as a religious minority in Xinjiang, of school holidays cut short by forced teachings of "political anthems" and being prohibited from attending the mosque or observing Ramadan.

China says it is tackling extremism through 'managing unauthorized religious activities' and 'training centers', but other countries, including the US, say its actions constitute genocide. Zeynure says she never felt able to follow her religious beliefs in Xinjiang. "Individuals who went on religious journey to Mecca abroad were detained and sent to jail and told they must have some issue in their mind.

"They wanted Uyghur people to abandon their faith and culture. They said 'you should trust in us, we gave you employment and this good life here'," says Zeynure.

She eventually decided to leave China after coming back home from university in Eastern China to a increasing repression on religious freedoms in 2011. It was then that she was introduced to Idris by one of her school friends. "She knew we both had made the decision to go overseas and told us perhaps 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 wrong. There were some Uyghur men at university who wanted to wed me, but Idris was unique."

Fresh Start in Turkey

Within two months they were married and prepared to leave for a different existence in Turkey. They knew it was an Muslim-majority country with many believers and Uyghurs already residing there, with a comparable tongue and shared ethnicity. "It felt like Uyghurs' second home," says Zeynure. As a educator and creative, they could also support the community in exile. "We have many children now in China being raised without Uyghur culture or dialect 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 abroad through the use of monitoring, intimidation and violence. But what Idris was faced was a newer method of repression: using China's growing financial influence to pressure other nations to yield to its demands, including arresting and deporting Uyghurs it wants to suppress.

Fighting for Freedom

After the call from Idris, and learning he had an Interpol red notice against him, Zeynure knew she only had a short window of chance to try to stop his extradition to China. She immediately contacted as many Uyghur support groups as she could find listed online in Europe and the US and begged for assistance. She was fearless despite China having already shown a willingness to target the family members of other individuals.

Zeynure started demonstrating with her children at the Moroccan embassy in Istanbul, and sharing updates on social media. To her amazement, similar protests soon occurred in Morocco demanding Idris's release. Moroccan officials were forced to put out a announcement saying his deportation was a matter for the courts to decide.

In early August 2021, Interpol withdrew Idris's alert after being pressed to review his case by advocacy organizations. But that did not stop a Moroccan court later deciding he should still be sent back to China. Zeynure says there was huge diplomatic pressure from Beijing, which made {little sense|