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In July 2021, a Uyghur woman named Zeynure was at her home 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 take a flight to Casablanca. The silence had been difficult.

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

Existence as Uyghurs in Exile

The wife, 31 years old, and Idris, 37, are part of the Uyghur community, which makes up about half of the population in China's western Xinjiang region. Over the last ten years, more than a million Uyghurs are believed to have been detained in so-called "vocational training camps," where they faced torture for ordinary actions like going to a mosque or wearing a headscarf.

The couple had joined thousands of Uyghurs who fled to Turkey during the 2010s. They hoped they would find security in their new home, but soon realized they were mistaken.

"I was told that the Beijing officials threatened to close all its industrial plants in the nation if Morocco released him," she explained.

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure became an English teacher, while Idris started as a translator and artist, helping to publish Uyghur news and printed works. They had a family of three kids and felt free to live as followers of Islam.

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

A Terrible Error

Departing Turkey turned out to be a disastrous mistake. At the airport, border control officials pulled him 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 set-up to me," Zeynure said. Her worst fears were realized when he was removed from the plane and detained by Moroccan authorities.

Over the last ten years, China has been using the international police agency Interpol to pursue political refugees and had asked for Idris to be placed on the agency's most-wanted "red notice list." Zeynure claims Turkish officials let him board the flight aware he would be apprehended upon landing in Morocco.

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

Family Pressure

Shortly after learning of her husband's arrest, Zeynure received an unexpected phone call from her family in Xinjiang. She had been separated from her family since they visited 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,'" Zeynure stated. "I knew there must be some police there with them and just pretended 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 caring for your children,' they told me. 'Don't say anything bad about China.'"

But with her husband's life at risk, the softly spoken Zeynure was not going to remain silent. She had grown up witnessing women having their hijabs forcibly removed in public by the authorities and had been determined to live in a country with religious freedom.

"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 social media or these platforms. But I had to do something to save my husband – I had to tell the reality to the world. Everyone knows Uyghurs deported to China will be abused or die. They forced me to raise my voice."

Childhood in Xinjiang

Zeynure has two distinct types of memories of her childhood in Xinjiang. The first was of blissful days spent in the rural areas with her elders, who were farmers. "I'd play with the animals and poultry. I don't know if I will ever have that kind of opportunity again. The family around the home and farm. It was too beautiful, like a scene from a book."

The second was as a Muslim Uyghur in Xinjiang, of school holidays interrupted by mandatory teachings of "communist songs" and being prohibited from going to the mosque or practicing Ramadan.

China claims it is tackling extremism through 'controlling unauthorized religious activities' and 'vocational education facilities', but other countries, including the US, say its actions amount to ethnic cleansing. 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 prison and told they must have some problem in their brain.

"They aimed for Uyghur people to abandon their faith and culture. They said 'you should believe in us, we gave you jobs and this good life here'," says Zeynure.

She finally decided to leave China after returning home from college in Eastern China to a increasing repression on religious freedoms in 2011. It was then that she was connected to Idris by one of her school friends. "She knew we both had taken the choice to go abroad and told us maybe we could meet and go together."

Zeynure says she was right away reassured by Idris. "I saw 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 marry me, but Idris was unique."

Fresh Start in Turkey

Within 60 days they were married and prepared to move for a different existence in Turkey. They knew it was an Islamic country with many Muslims and Uyghurs already living there, with a similar language and common ethnicity. "It felt like Uyghurs' second home," says Zeynure. As a teacher and designer, they could also help the Uyghur population in exile. "There are many children now in China growing up without Uyghur traditions or dialect so we think it's our duty to not let it disappear," she says.

But their sense of safety at locating a place of safety overseas was temporary. Beijing has become a global leader in targeting critics living in exile through the use of electronic surveillance, threats and violence. But what Idris was faced was a more recent tool of control: using China's increasing economic leverage to force other nations to yield to its demands, including arresting and deporting Uyghurs it wants to silence.

Campaigning for Freedom

After the call from Idris, and discovering he had an Interpol alert hanging over him, Zeynure knew she only had a limited time of chance to try to prevent his extradition to China. She right away contacted as many Uyghur advocacy organizations as she could find advertised on the internet in Europe and the US and begged for assistance. She was brave despite China having already shown a readiness to target the relatives of other targets.

Zeynure started demonstrating with her children at the diplomatic mission in Istanbul, and posting information on online platforms. To her amazement, similar protests soon occurred in Morocco calling for Idris's release. Moroccan officials were compelled to put out a announcement saying his extradition was a matter for the courts to determine.

In early August 2021, Interpol withdrew Idris's red notice after being pressed to review his case by human rights groups. But that did not stop a Moroccan court later ruling he should still be extradited to China. Zeynure says there was significant diplomatic pressure from Beijing, which made {little sense|