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In July 2021, a Uyghur woman named Zeynure was at her home in Istanbul when she got a desperately anticipated phone call from her husband. It had been four agonizing days since their last contact, when he was preparing to take a flight to Casablanca. The silence had been torturous.

But the news her husband Idris delivered was more alarming. He explained that upon arrival in Morocco, he had been arrested and jailed. Authorities stated he would be deported to China. "Reach out to everyone who can help me," he urged, before the line went silent.

Existence as Uyghurs in Exile

Zeynure, in her early thirties, and Idris, in his late thirties, are part of the Uyghur community, which makes up about half of the population in China's western Xinjiang region. Over the past decade, over a 1,000,000 Uyghurs are estimated to have been detained in alleged "re-education camps," where they faced torture for ordinary actions like going to a mosque or wearing a headscarf.

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

"I was told that the Beijing officials warned to close all its factories in the country if Morocco released him," Zeynure explained.

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure worked as an language instructor, while Idris started as a interpreter and designer, assisting to publish Uyghur media and publications. They had a family of three kids 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 summer of 2021, Idris became fearful. Reports indicated that Beijing was pressuring 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 culture. He decided to flee to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had expired, had to stay behind with the children until her husband could apply for a travel document for the whole family.

A Costly Error

Departing Turkey turned out to be a disastrous decision. At the Istanbul airport, immigration officials pulled him aside for questioning. "When he was eventually allowed 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 recalled. Her deepest concerns were confirmed when he was taken off the plane and detained by Moroccan authorities.

Over the past decade, China has been utilizing the international police agency Interpol to target dissidents and had asked for Idris to be added on the agency's high-priority "red notice list." Zeynure claims Turkish officials let him take the flight aware he would be apprehended upon landing in Morocco.

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

Parental Pressure

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

Her parents had a chilling warning. "They told me, 'We know your husband is not with you. Maybe we can help you,'" she stated. "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. 'Avoid doing anything except feeding your children,' they told me. 'Avoid saying anything bad about China.'"

But with her husband's life at stake, the softly spoken Zeynure was not going to stay quiet. She had grown up witnessing women having their hijabs ripped off 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 looking after my family; I didn't even have Facebook or Twitter. But I had to do something to save my husband – I had to reveal the reality to the international community. Everyone knows Uyghurs sent to China will be tortured or die. They forced me to raise my voice."

Childhood in Xinjiang

Zeynure has two distinct types of recollections of her childhood in Xinjiang. The first was of happy days spent in the rural areas with her elders, who were farmers. "I'd play with the sheep and poultry. I don't know if I will ever have that type of opportunity again. The relatives around the home and land. It was too beautiful, like a scene from a story."

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

China claims it is tackling radicalism through 'controlling unauthorized religious activities' and 'training centers', but other countries, including the US, say its actions constitute ethnic cleansing. Zeynure says she never felt able to practice her faith in Xinjiang. "People who went on religious journey to Mecca in Saudi Arabia were detained and transferred to jail and told they must have some issue in their brain.

"They wanted Uyghur people to forget their faith and culture. They said 'you should trust in us, we provided you jobs and this good life here'," says Zeynure.

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

Zeynure says she was right away comforted by Idris. "I saw 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 60 days they were wed and ready to leave for a new life in Turkey. They knew it was an Muslim-majority country with many Muslims and Uyghurs already residing there, with a comparable language and common background. "It felt like Uyghurs' second home," says Zeynure. As a educator and designer, they could also help the Uyghur population in exile. "We have 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 finding a secure location overseas was temporary. Beijing has become a prominent force in targeting critics abroad through the use of monitoring, threats and physical assault. But what Idris was faced was a more recent tool of control: using China's growing financial influence to force other countries to bend to its will, including arresting and extraditing Uyghurs it wants to suppress.

Fighting for Freedom

After the phone call from Idris, and learning he had an Interpol alert hanging over him, Zeynure knew she only had a short window of chance to try to stop his extradition to China. She immediately contacted as many Uyghur support groups as she could find listed online in the EU and the US and begged for help. She was brave despite China having already demonstrated a readiness to target the family members of other individuals.

Zeynure started demonstrating with her children at the diplomatic mission in Istanbul, and posting information on social media. To her surprise, similar protests soon followed in Morocco calling for Idris's release. Moroccan officials were forced to put out a announcement saying his extradition was a matter for the judicial system to determine.

In early August 2021, Interpol withdrew Idris's red notice after being urged to reexamine his case by advocacy organizations. But that did not stop a Moroccan court later deciding he should still be sent back to China. Zeynure says there was significant political influence from Beijing, which made {little sense|