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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 desperately anticipated 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 torturous.

But the news her husband Idris delivered was more devastating. He told her that upon landing in Morocco, he had been taken into custody and jailed. Authorities informed him he would be extradited to China. "Reach out to anyone who can help me," he pleaded, before the line went silent.

Life as Ethnic Minority in Exile

The wife, in her early thirties, and Idris, 37, are members of the Uyghur ethnic group, which makes up about half of the population in China's north-western Xinjiang province. Over the past decade, over a 1,000,000 Uyghurs are estimated to have been imprisoned in so-called "re-education camps," where they faced mistreatment for commonplace actions like attending a mosque or using a headscarf.

The pair had been among thousands of Uyghurs who escaped to Turkey during the previous decade. They hoped they would find security in exile, but soon discovered they were wrong.

"I was told that the Beijing officials threatened to shut down all its industrial plants in the nation if Morocco released him," Zeynure stated.

After settling in Istanbul, Zeynure became an English teacher, while Idris started as a interpreter and artist, assisting to produce Uyghur news and printed works. They had a family of three kids and felt able to practice as Muslims.

But when one of Idris's close friends, who worked in a book repository containing Uyghur books, was arrested in the summer of 2021, Idris became fearful. Reports indicated that Beijing was pressuring Turkey to deport Uyghurs. Idris felt vulnerable due to his prior arrest, which he suspected was linked to his work with activists and promoting Uyghur culture. He chose to flee to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had expired, had to remain with the children until her husband could request a travel document for the whole family.

A Costly Mistake

Leaving Turkey turned out to be a disastrous decision. At the airport, immigration officials pulled him aside for questioning. "When he was finally permitted to board the plane, he told me how relieved he was that they had let him go, but it felt like a trap to me," she recalled. Her worst fears were realized when he was taken off the plane and arrested by Moroccan authorities.

Over the past decade, China has been using the global police agency Interpol to pursue political refugees and had requested for Idris to be added on the agency's high-priority "alert list." Zeynure claims 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 fear most: defy China, despite the risks.

Family Pressure

Shortly after hearing of her husband's detention, Zeynure received an surprising phone call from her family in Xinjiang. She had been cut off from her relatives since they came to see her in Turkey in 2016 and were imprisoned for a few months upon their return to China.

Her parents had a chilling message. "They told me, '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 insisted and told me not to do anything to help my husband. 'Avoid doing anything except caring for your children,' they told me. 'Avoid saying anything negative about China.'"

But with her husband's safety at stake, the quiet-mannered Zeynure was not going to remain silent. She had grown up witnessing women having their head coverings ripped off in public by the police and had been determined 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 save my husband – I had to reveal the truth to the world. Everyone knows Uyghurs deported to China will be abused or killed. They forced me to speak out."

Growing Up in Xinjiang

Zeynure has different 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 used to play with the animals and poultry. I don't know if I will ever have that type of chance again. The relatives around the house and farm. It was too wonderful, like a picture from a story."

The second was as a religious minority in Xinjiang, of vacations cut short by forced teachings of "political anthems" and being banned from going to the religious site or practicing Ramadan.

China claims it is tackling radicalism through 'controlling unauthorized religious activities' and 'vocational education centers', but other nations, 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 detained and sent to jail and told they must have some issue in their brain.

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

She eventually decided to depart China after coming back home from university 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 school friends. "She was aware we both had made the decision to go abroad and told us maybe we could meet and go as a group."

Zeynure says she was right away comforted by Idris. "I saw he was very honest and shy, and couldn't be dishonest or do anything wrong. There were some Uyghur boys at university who wanted to marry me, but Idris was unique."

A New Life in Turkey

Within two months they were wed and ready to leave 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 was like Uyghurs' alternative homeland," says Zeynure. As a educator and creative, they could also help the Uyghur population in diaspora. "We have many kids now in China growing up without Uyghur culture or language so we think it's our duty to not let it die out," she says.

But their sense of safety at locating a secure location overseas was temporary. Beijing has become a global leader in targeting critics living in exile through the use of monitoring, intimidation and physical assault. But what Idris was faced was a newer method of control: using China's growing economic leverage to force other countries to yield to its will, including arresting and deporting Uyghurs it wants to suppress.

Campaigning for Freedom

After the call from Idris, and learning he had an Interpol alert hanging over him, Zeynure knew she only had a limited time of chance to try to stop his extradition to China. She immediately contacted as many Uyghur advocacy organizations as she could find advertised online in the EU and the US and begged for assistance. She was brave despite China having already demonstrated a willingness to target the family members of other targets.

Zeynure started demonstrating with her children at the diplomatic mission in Istanbul, and sharing information on social media. To her surprise, similar protests soon occurred in Morocco demanding Idris's freedom. Moroccan officials were compelled to put out a announcement saying his deportation was a issue for the judicial system to decide.

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