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In July 2021, Zeynure Hasan was at her home in Istanbul when she received a desperately anticipated phone call from her husband. There had been four agonizing days since their last contact, when he was getting ready to board a flight to Casablanca. The lack of communication had been unbearable.

But the update her husband Idris shared 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 sent back to China. "Contact anyone who can help me," he pleaded, before the line went dead.

Life as Ethnic Minority in Turkey

The wife, in her early thirties, and Idris, in his late thirties, are part of the Uyghur community, which makes up about 50% of the residents in China's western Xinjiang province. Over the last ten years, over a 1,000,000 Uyghurs are estimated to have been detained in alleged "vocational training camps," where they faced abuse for ordinary actions like attending a place of worship or using a hijab.

The pair had been among many of Uyghurs who fled to Turkey during the 2010s. They believed they would find refuge in exile, but quickly discovered they were mistaken.

"I was told that the Chinese government warned to shut down all its factories in the country if Morocco released him," she stated.

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure worked as an language instructor, while Idris began as a translator and artist, helping to publish Uyghur news and publications. They had three children and felt able to practice 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 panicked. News indicated that Beijing was pressuring Turkey to deport Uyghurs. Idris felt vulnerable due to his previous detention, which he suspected was connected to his work with advocates and promoting Uyghur heritage. He chose to flee to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had expired, had to stay behind with the children until her husband could request a visa for the whole family.

A Terrible Error

Departing Turkey proved to be a disastrous decision. At the airport, border control officials pulled him aside for interrogation. "When he was eventually allowed to board the plane, he told me how happy he was that they had let him go, but it felt like a trap to me," she said. Her worst fears were realized when he was removed from the plane and detained by Moroccan authorities.

Over the past decade, China has been utilizing the global police agency Interpol to target political refugees and had requested for Idris to be added on the agency's high-priority "red notice list." Zeynure says Turkish officials allowed him take the flight knowing he would be arrested upon landing in Morocco.

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

Family Interference

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 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 warning. "They said, 'We know your husband is not with you. Perhaps we can assist you,'" Zeynure stated. "I knew there must be some authorities 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. 'Avoid doing anything except feeding your children,' they told me. 'Don't say anything bad about China.'"

But with her husband's safety at stake, the quiet-mannered Zeynure was not going to remain silent. She had been raised seeing women having their hijabs forcibly removed in open by the police and had been resolved 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 social media or these platforms. But I had to do something to rescue my husband – I had to reveal the reality to the international community. Everyone knows Uyghurs deported to China will be abused or die. They pushed me to speak out."

Childhood in Xinjiang

Zeynure has different types of memories of her early years in Xinjiang. The first was of blissful days spent in the countryside with her grandparents, who were agricultural workers. "I'd play with the animals and poultry. I don't know if I will ever have that type of opportunity again. The relatives around the house and farm. It was too beautiful, like a scene from a story."

The second was as a religious minority in Xinjiang, of school holidays interrupted by mandatory teachings of "political anthems" and being prohibited from going to the mosque or observing Ramadan.

China says it is addressing radicalism through 'controlling illegal religious activities' and 'training facilities', but other nations, including the US, say its actions constitute ethnic cleansing. Zeynure says she never felt able to practice her religious beliefs in Xinjiang. "Individuals who went on religious journey to Mecca in Saudi Arabia were detained and sent to jail and told they must have some problem in their brain.

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

She eventually decided to depart China after coming back home from university in Eastern China to a increasing crackdown on beliefs in 2011. It was then that she was connected to Idris by one of her classmates. "She knew we both had taken the decision to go abroad and told us maybe 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 shy, and couldn't be dishonest or do anything bad. There were some Uyghur boys at university who wanted to marry me, but Idris was unique."

Fresh Start in Turkey

Within 60 days they were married and ready to move for a new life in Turkey. They knew it was an Muslim-majority country with many believers and Uyghurs already living there, with a comparable tongue and shared background. "It felt like Uyghurs' second home," says Zeynure. As a teacher and designer, they could also help the Uyghur population in exile. "We have many children now in China being raised without Uyghur traditions or language so we think it's our duty to not let it die out," she says.

But their sense of safety at finding a secure location overseas was temporary. Beijing has become a prominent force in pursuing dissidents living in exile through the use of monitoring, intimidation and violence. But what Idris was faced was a more recent tool of control: using China's increasing economic leverage to pressure other nations to yield to its demands, including arresting and deporting Uyghurs it wants to suppress.

Campaigning for Freedom

After the phone call from Idris, and learning he had an Interpol alert against him, Zeynure knew she only had a limited time of opportunity 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 Europe and the US and begged for help. She was fearless despite China having already demonstrated a readiness to go after the relatives of other targets.

Zeynure started protesting with her children at the diplomatic mission in Istanbul, and posting information on online platforms. To her surprise, copycat protests soon occurred in Morocco demanding Idris's freedom. Moroccan officials were compelled to issue a statement saying his extradition was a matter for the judicial system to determine.

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