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In July 2021, a Uyghur woman named Zeynure was at her home in Istanbul when she answered 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 Morocco. The silence had been difficult.

But the news her husband Idris revealed was more devastating. He explained that upon arrival in Morocco, he had been taken into custody and imprisoned. Authorities told him he would be deported to China. "Reach out to anyone who can rescue me," he said, before the line went silent.

Existence as Ethnic Minority in Exile

The wife, 31 years old, and Idris, in his late thirties, are part of the mostly Muslim community, which constitutes about half of the population in China's western Xinjiang region. Over the past decade, more than a million Uyghurs are estimated to have been detained in so-called "re-education camps," where they faced torture for commonplace actions like attending a mosque or using a headscarf.

The couple had been among thousands of Uyghurs who escaped to Turkey during the previous decade. They believed they would find safety in their new home, but soon realized they were wrong.

"I was told that the Beijing officials threatened to close all its industrial plants in the country if Morocco released him," Zeynure said.

After settling in Istanbul, Zeynure worked as an language instructor, while Idris started as a interpreter and designer, assisting to publish Uyghur media 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 library stocking Uyghur books, was detained in the mid-year of 2021, Idris panicked. News indicated that Beijing was urging Turkey to deport Uyghurs. Idris felt at risk due to his previous detention, which he suspected was linked to his work with advocates and supporting Uyghur culture. He chose to escape 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 family.

A Terrible Mistake

Leaving Turkey turned out to be a terrible decision. At the airport, border control officials pulled him aside for questioning. "After he was eventually permitted to board 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 removed from the plane and detained by border officials.

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

What followed would convince her to do what many Uyghurs fear most: challenge China, despite the consequences.

Family Interference

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

Her parents had a disturbing message. "They said, 'We know your husband is not with you. Perhaps we can help you,'" Zeynure explained. "I knew there must be some authorities 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 caring for your children,' they told me. 'Avoid saying anything negative about China.'"

But with her husband's life at stake, the softly spoken Zeynure was not going to remain silent. She had grown up 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.

"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 save my husband – I had to reveal the truth to the international community. Everyone knows Uyghurs sent to China will be tortured or die. 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 happy 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 home and farm. It was too beautiful, like a scene from a book."

The second was as a Muslim Uyghur in Xinjiang, of vacations interrupted by forced teachings of "communist songs" and being banned from attending the mosque or observing Ramadan.

China says it is addressing radicalism through 'managing unauthorized religious activities' and 'vocational education centers', but other countries, including the US, say its actions amount to genocide. Zeynure says she never felt free to practice her religious beliefs in Xinjiang. "Individuals who went on religious journey to Mecca abroad were arrested and sent to jail and told they must have some problem in their brain.

"They aimed for Uyghur people to abandon their religion and culture. They said 'you should trust in us, we provided you jobs and this good living here'," says Zeynure.

She finally decided to leave China after returning home from university in another part of China to a increasing crackdown on beliefs in 2011. It was then that she was connected to Idris by one of her school friends. "She was aware we both had taken the choice to go overseas and told us perhaps we could get together and go as a group."

Zeynure says she was right away reassured by Idris. "I saw he was very truthful and reserved, and couldn't tell lies or do anything wrong. There were some Uyghur men 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 different existence 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 felt like Uyghurs' second home," says Zeynure. As a teacher and creative, they could also help the Uyghur population in exile. "There are many children now in China growing up without Uyghur culture or dialect so we think it's our responsibility to not let it die out," she says.

But their relief at finding a place of safety overseas was temporary. Beijing has become a prominent force in pursuing dissidents abroad through the use of electronic surveillance, intimidation and violence. But what Idris was subjected to was a newer tool of control: using China's increasing financial influence to force other countries to bend to its demands, including detaining and extraditing Uyghurs it wants to suppress.

Fighting for Release

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 prevent his deportation to China. She right away reached out to as many Uyghur support groups as she could find listed on the internet in Europe and the US and begged 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 sharing information on online platforms. To her surprise, copycat protests soon followed in Morocco calling for Idris's freedom. Moroccan officials were compelled to put out a statement saying his extradition was a matter for the judicial system to decide.

In early August 2021, Interpol withdrew Idris's alert after being pressed to reexamine 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 political influence from Beijing, which made {little sense|