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In July 2021, a Uyghur woman named Zeynure was at her residence in Turkey's largest city when she received a desperately anticipated phone call from her husband. It had been four agonizing days since their last communication, when he was getting ready to take a flight to Morocco. The silence had been torturous.

But the news her husband Idris shared was more alarming. He explained that upon arrival in Morocco, he had been arrested and imprisoned. Authorities informed him he would be sent back to China. "Reach out to anyone who can rescue me," he said, before the line went silent.

Existence as Uyghurs in Exile

The wife, 31 years old, and Idris, 37, are part of the mostly Muslim community, which constitutes about half of the population in China's western Xinjiang region. Over the last ten years, over a million Uyghurs are estimated to have been imprisoned in alleged "re-education camps," where they faced torture for commonplace actions like attending a mosque or wearing a hijab.

The pair had joined many of Uyghurs who fled to Turkey during the 2010s. They hoped they would find security in their new home, but soon discovered they were mistaken.

"Authorities informed me that the Beijing officials warned to shut down all its industrial plants in the country if Morocco freed him," she said.

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure became an language instructor, while Idris began as a interpreter and artist, helping to produce Uyghur media 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 arrested in the mid-year of 2021, Idris became fearful. Reports indicated that Beijing was urging Turkey to extradite Uyghurs. Idris felt vulnerable due to his previous arrest, which he believed was linked to his work with advocates and promoting Uyghur heritage. 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 visa for the family.

A Terrible Mistake

Leaving Turkey proved to be a terrible mistake. At the Istanbul airport, immigration 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 let him go, but it felt like a set-up to me," Zeynure recalled. Her worst fears were confirmed when he was removed from the plane and arrested by Moroccan authorities.

Over the last ten years, China has been using the international police agency Interpol to target dissidents and had asked for Idris to be placed on the agency's most-wanted "red notice list." Zeynure claims Turkish officials allowed him board the flight aware he would be apprehended upon landing in Morocco.

What happened next would lead her to do what many Uyghurs dread most: defy China, despite the consequences.

Parental Pressure

Shortly after learning of her husband's detention, Zeynure got an unexpected phone call from her parents in Xinjiang. She had been separated from her family since they visited her in Turkey in 2016 and were imprisoned for several months upon their going back to China.

Her parents had a chilling warning. "They told me, 'We know your husband is not with you. Perhaps we can help you,'" Zeynure stated. "I realized there must be some authorities there with them and just acted like I didn't know anything. But they insisted and told me not to do anything to help my husband. 'Don't do anything except caring for your children,' they told me. 'Don't say anything bad about China.'"

But with her husband's safety at risk, the quiet-mannered Zeynure was not going to remain silent. She had grown up seeing women having their head coverings 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 social media 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 different types of memories of her early years in Xinjiang. The first was of happy days spent in the rural areas with her grandparents, who were agricultural workers. "I used to play with the sheep and chickens. I don't know if I will ever have that kind of chance again. The relatives around the house and farm. It was too wonderful, like a scene from a story."

The second was as a Muslim Uyghur in Xinjiang, of vacations cut short by mandatory teachings of "communist songs" and being prohibited from going to the religious site or practicing Ramadan.

China says it is addressing radicalism through 'managing illegal religious activities' and 'vocational education facilities', but other countries, including the US, say its actions amount to ethnic cleansing. Zeynure says she never felt free to follow her religious beliefs in Xinjiang. "Individuals who went on religious journey to Mecca abroad were detained and transferred to jail and told they must have some problem in their mind.

"They aimed for Uyghur people to forget their religion and culture. They said 'you should trust in us, we gave you employment and this beautiful living here'," says Zeynure.

She eventually decided to depart China after coming back home from college in Eastern China to a increasing repression on beliefs in 2011. It was then that she was introduced to Idris by one of her classmates. "She knew we both had made the choice to go abroad and told us maybe we could meet and go as a group."

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

Fresh Start in Turkey

Within two months they were wed 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 was like Uyghurs' alternative homeland," says Zeynure. As a teacher and creative, they could also help the Uyghur population in exile. "There are many kids 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 relief at finding a place of safety abroad was short-lived. Beijing has become a prominent force in targeting critics abroad through the use of monitoring, intimidation and violence. But what Idris was subjected to was a more recent method of repression: using China's growing financial influence to pressure other nations to bend to its demands, including arresting and deporting Uyghurs it wants to suppress.

Campaigning for Freedom

After the phone call from Idris, and discovering he had an Interpol red notice against him, Zeynure knew she only had a short window of opportunity to try to stop his extradition to China. She immediately contacted 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 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 followed in Morocco demanding Idris's freedom. Moroccan officials were compelled to issue a announcement saying his extradition was a issue for the courts to determine.

In the start of 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 sent back to China. Zeynure says there was huge diplomatic pressure from Beijing, which made {little sense|