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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. There had been four painful days since their last communication, when he was preparing to take a flight to Casablanca. The lack of communication had been torturous.

But the update her husband Idris delivered was more devastating. He explained that upon landing in Morocco, he had been detained and jailed. Authorities told him he would be sent back to China. "Call anyone who can rescue me," he urged, before the line went dead.

Life as Ethnic Minority in Exile

The wife, in her early thirties, and Idris, 37, are part of the Uyghur community, which makes up about half of the residents in China's western Xinjiang region. Over the last ten years, more than a million Uyghurs are believed to have been detained in alleged "re-education camps," where they faced mistreatment for ordinary acts like going to a place of worship or using a hijab.

The couple had joined many of Uyghurs who fled to Turkey during the 2010s. They thought they would find refuge in exile, but soon realized they were mistaken.

"Authorities informed me that the Beijing officials warned to shut down all its industrial plants in the nation if Morocco released him," Zeynure said.

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure worked as an English teacher, while Idris began as a interpreter and designer, helping to produce Uyghur news and publications. They had a family of three kids and enjoyed 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 arrested in the summer of 2021, Idris became fearful. News indicated that Beijing was pressuring Turkey to deport Uyghurs. Idris felt vulnerable due to his previous arrest, which he suspected was connected to his work with activists and supporting Uyghur heritage. He decided to flee 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 whole family.

A Costly Mistake

Leaving Turkey turned out to be a disastrous mistake. At the airport, immigration officials pulled him aside for interrogation. "When he was finally allowed to board the plane, he told me how happy 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 removed from the plane and arrested by Moroccan authorities.

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

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

Parental Pressure

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

Her parents had a disturbing message. "They told me, 'We know your husband is not with you. Maybe we can assist you,'" she stated. "I realized there must be some police 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 caring for your children,' they told me. 'Don't say anything negative about China.'"

But with her husband's life at risk, the quiet-mannered Zeynure was not going to stay quiet. She had been raised seeing women having their hijabs forcibly removed in public by the police and had been resolved to live in a country with freedom of belief.

"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 rescue my husband – I had to reveal the reality to the world. Everyone knows Uyghurs deported to China will be abused or die. They pushed me to speak out."

Childhood in Xinjiang

Zeynure has two distinct types of recollections of her early years in Xinjiang. The first was of blissful days spent in the countryside with her grandparents, who were agricultural workers. "I used to play with the animals and chickens. I don't know if I will ever have that kind of chance again. The family around the home and farm. It was too wonderful, like a picture from a story."

The second was as a religious minority in Xinjiang, of school holidays interrupted by mandatory teachings of "communist songs" and being prohibited from attending the religious site or practicing Ramadan.

China claims it is tackling extremism through 'managing illegal religious activities' and 'training facilities', but other nations, including the US, say its actions amount to genocide. Zeynure says she never felt free to follow her faith in Xinjiang. "People who went on pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia were detained and sent to prison and told they must have some issue in their brain.

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

She eventually decided to leave China after returning home from university in Eastern China to a increasing repression 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 meet 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 be dishonest or do anything bad. 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 wed and prepared to leave 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 shared ethnicity. "It was like Uyghurs' second home," says Zeynure. As a educator and designer, they could also support the Uyghur population in diaspora. "There are many children now in China growing up without Uyghur traditions or language so we think it's our duty to not let it disappear," she says.

But their relief at locating a place of safety overseas was short-lived. Beijing has become a prominent force in pursuing dissidents living in exile through the use of monitoring, threats and physical assault. But what Idris was faced was a newer method of repression: using China's increasing economic leverage to pressure other countries to yield to its will, including arresting and deporting Uyghurs it wants to silence.

Campaigning for Freedom

After the call from Idris, and learning he had an Interpol red notice hanging over him, Zeynure knew she only had a short window of opportunity to try to prevent his extradition to China. She right away reached out to as many Uyghur advocacy organizations as she could find advertised online in Europe and the US and pleaded for assistance. She was fearless despite China having already shown a willingness to target the relatives of other targets.

Zeynure started protesting with her children at the diplomatic mission in Istanbul, and posting information on social media. To her amazement, copycat protests soon followed in Morocco demanding Idris's freedom. Moroccan officials were compelled to put out a announcement saying his extradition was a matter for the courts to determine.

In the start of August 2021, Interpol cancelled Idris's alert after being urged to review his case by advocacy organizations. But that did not prevent a Moroccan court later deciding he should still be sent back to China. Zeynure says there was huge political influence from Beijing, which made {little sense|