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In the summer of 2021, Zeynure Hasan was at her home in Istanbul when she received a desperately anticipated phone call from her husband. It had been four stressful days since their last contact, when he was getting ready to take a flight to Morocco. The lack of communication had been torturous.

But the update her husband Idris delivered was even worse. He explained that upon arrival in Morocco, he had been taken into custody and jailed. Authorities stated he would be sent back to China. "Reach out to anyone who can rescue me," he pleaded, before the line went dead.

Life as Uyghurs in Exile

Zeynure, 31 years old, and Idris, 37, are part of the mostly Muslim community, which constitutes about 50% of the residents in China's north-western Xinjiang region. Over the last ten years, over a 1,000,000 Uyghurs are believed to have been detained in so-called "vocational training camps," where they faced abuse for ordinary acts like going to a place of worship or wearing a headscarf.

The couple had joined thousands of Uyghurs who escaped to Turkey during the previous decade. They hoped they would find refuge in exile, but soon discovered they were mistaken.

"Authorities informed me that the Beijing officials warned to shut down all its factories in the country if Morocco freed him," she said.

After settling in Istanbul, Zeynure worked as an language instructor, while Idris began as a interpreter and designer, helping to publish Uyghur media and publications. They had three children and felt free to live as followers of Islam.

But when one of Idris's best friends, who was employed in a library containing Uyghur books, was detained in the summer of 2021, Idris became fearful. Reports indicated that Beijing was pressuring Turkey to extradite Uyghurs. Idris felt vulnerable due to his previous detention, which he believed was linked to his work with advocates and supporting Uyghur heritage. He decided to flee to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had expired, 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 disastrous mistake. At the airport, immigration officials took Idris aside for interrogation. "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 set-up to me," she said. Her worst fears were confirmed when he was taken off the plane and detained by border officials.

Over the last ten years, China has been using the global police agency Interpol to target dissidents and had requested for Idris to be added on the agency's most-wanted "alert list." Zeynure says Turkish officials let him take the flight aware he would be arrested upon arrival in Morocco.

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

Parental Interference

Shortly after hearing of her husband's arrest, Zeynure received 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 chilling message. "They told me, 'We know your husband is not with you. Maybe we can assist you,'" she explained. "I knew there must be some authorities there with them and just pretended like I didn't know anything. But they insisted and told me not to do anything to help my husband. 'Avoid doing 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 witnessing women having their head coverings ripped off in public by the authorities 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 looking after 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 reality to the international community. Everyone knows Uyghurs deported to China will be abused or killed. They pushed me to speak out."

Growing Up in Xinjiang

Zeynure has two distinct types of recollections of her early years in Xinjiang. The first was of happy days spent in the countryside with her grandparents, who were farmers. "I used to play with the animals and poultry. I don't know if I will ever have that kind of opportunity again. The relatives around the house and land. It was too beautiful, like a picture from a book."

The second was as a Muslim Uyghur in Xinjiang, of vacations cut short by mandatory teachings of "communist songs" and being banned from going to the religious site or observing Ramadan.

China claims it is addressing radicalism through 'managing unauthorized religious activities' and 'training facilities', but other countries, including the US, say its actions constitute ethnic cleansing. Zeynure says she never felt able to practice her religious beliefs in Xinjiang. "Individuals who went on religious journey to Mecca abroad were arrested and transferred to prison and told they must have some problem in their brain.

"They wanted Uyghur people to forget their faith and culture. 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 coming back home from college in Eastern China to a growing crackdown 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 choice 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 shy, and couldn't tell lies 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 wed and ready to leave for a new life in Turkey. They knew it was an Islamic country with many believers and Uyghurs already residing there, with a similar tongue and shared ethnicity. "It was like Uyghurs' second home," says Zeynure. As a educator and creative, they could also help the Uyghur population in exile. "There are many children now in China growing up without Uyghur traditions or language so we think it's our responsibility to not let it die out," she says.

But their relief at locating a place of safety abroad was temporary. Beijing has become a prominent force in pursuing dissidents abroad through the use of monitoring, intimidation and physical assault. But what Idris was subjected to was a newer tool of control: using China's increasing financial influence to pressure other countries to yield to its demands, including detaining and deporting Uyghurs it wants to silence.

Fighting for Freedom

After the call from Idris, and learning he had an Interpol red notice hanging over him, Zeynure knew she only had a limited time of opportunity to try to prevent his deportation to China. She right away contacted as many Uyghur support groups as she could find advertised on the internet in the EU and the US and begged for assistance. She was brave despite China having already demonstrated a readiness to target the relatives of other targets.

Zeynure started protesting with her children at the Moroccan embassy in Istanbul, and sharing updates on social media. To her amazement, similar protests soon followed in Morocco demanding Idris's freedom. Moroccan officials were compelled to put out a statement saying his deportation was a issue for the judicial system to determine.

In the start of August 2021, Interpol cancelled Idris's alert after being pressed to reexamine his case by human rights groups. But that did not stop a Moroccan court later ruling he should still be sent back to China. Zeynure says there was huge political influence from Beijing, which made {little sense|