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In July 2021, a Uyghur woman named Zeynure was at her home 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 communication, when he was getting ready to take a flight to Casablanca. The lack of communication had been unbearable.

But the news her husband Idris delivered was more devastating. He informed her that upon arrival in Morocco, he had been arrested and jailed. Authorities informed him he would be deported to China. "Call anyone who can assist me," he urged, before the line went dead.

Life as Ethnic Minority in Turkey

The wife, in her early thirties, 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 past decade, over a 1,000,000 Uyghurs are reported to have been imprisoned in so-called "vocational training camps," where they faced abuse for commonplace acts like attending a place of worship or using a headscarf.

The couple had joined many of Uyghurs who escaped to Turkey during the previous decade. They hoped they would find safety in their new home, but soon discovered they were mistaken.

"Authorities informed me that the Chinese government warned to close all its industrial plants in the nation if Morocco freed him," she explained.

After settling in Istanbul, Zeynure worked as an English teacher, while Idris started as a translator and designer, assisting to publish Uyghur news and printed works. They had three children and enjoyed able to practice as followers of Islam.

But when one of Idris's best friends, who was employed in a book repository stocking Uyghur books, was detained in the summer of 2021, Idris became fearful. Reports indicated that Beijing was urging Turkey to extradite Uyghurs. Idris felt at risk due to his previous arrest, which he suspected was linked to his work with advocates and promoting Uyghur heritage. He chose to escape to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had lapsed, had to stay behind with the children until her husband could request a travel document for the whole family.

A Costly Error

Departing Turkey proved to be a terrible mistake. At the Istanbul airport, border control officials pulled him aside for interrogation. "When he was finally permitted to get on the plane, he told me how happy he was that they had released him, but it felt like a set-up to me," Zeynure said. Her worst fears were confirmed when he was removed from the plane and arrested by border officials.

Over the past decade, China has been using the global police agency Interpol to target political refugees and had requested for Idris to be placed on the agency's most-wanted "red notice list." Zeynure says Turkish officials let him board the flight knowing he would be arrested upon landing in Morocco.

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

Parental Interference

Shortly after hearing of her husband's detention, Zeynure got 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 jailed 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. Perhaps we can help you,'" Zeynure explained. "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 feeding your children,' they told me. 'Don't say 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 witnessing women having their head coverings forcibly removed in open by the police and had been determined to live in a country with religious freedom.

"Before 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 rescue my husband – I had to tell the reality to the international community. Everyone knows Uyghurs deported to China will be tortured or killed. They forced me to speak out."

Growing Up in Xinjiang

Zeynure has two distinct types of memories of her early years in Xinjiang. The first was of blissful days spent in the rural areas with her elders, who were agricultural workers. "I'd play with the animals and chickens. I don't know if I will ever have that type of opportunity again. The relatives around the home and land. It was too wonderful, like a scene from a book."

The second was as a religious minority in Xinjiang, of vacations interrupted by forced teachings of "political anthems" and being prohibited from attending the religious site or practicing Ramadan.

China claims it is addressing radicalism through 'controlling illegal religious activities' and 'vocational education centers', but other countries, including the US, say its actions amount to genocide. Zeynure says she never felt able to follow her faith in Xinjiang. "Individuals who went on pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia were arrested and transferred to jail and told they must have some problem in their brain.

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

She finally decided to leave China after coming back home from college in another part of China to a increasing crackdown on religious freedoms in 2011. It was then that she was introduced to Idris by one of her classmates. "She knew we both had taken the decision to go abroad and told us perhaps we could get together and go as a group."

Zeynure says she was immediately comforted by Idris. "I realized he was very truthful and reserved, and couldn't be dishonest or do anything bad. There were some Uyghur boys at university who wanted to marry me, but Idris was different."

Fresh Start in Turkey

Within two months they were married and prepared to leave for a new life in Turkey. They knew it was an Islamic country with many Muslims and Uyghurs already living there, with a comparable tongue and shared ethnicity. "It felt like Uyghurs' alternative homeland," says Zeynure. As a educator and creative, they could also help the community in diaspora. "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 disappear," she says.

But their sense of safety at locating a secure location overseas was short-lived. Beijing has become a prominent force in targeting dissidents living in exile through the use of electronic surveillance, intimidation and physical assault. But what Idris was subjected to was a newer method of control: using China's increasing economic leverage to pressure other nations to bend to its demands, including arresting and deporting Uyghurs it wants to suppress.

Campaigning for Release

After the phone call from Idris, and learning he had an Interpol red notice hanging over him, Zeynure knew she only had a limited time of chance to try to stop his deportation to China. She immediately reached out to as many Uyghur advocacy organizations 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 go after the family members of other targets.

Zeynure started protesting with her children at the Moroccan embassy in Istanbul, and posting updates on social media. To her surprise, similar protests soon occurred in Morocco demanding 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 alert after being urged to reexamine 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 huge diplomatic pressure from Beijing, which made {little sense|