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In July 2021, a Uyghur woman named Zeynure was at her residence in Istanbul when she received a desperately anticipated phone call from her husband. It had been four agonizing days since their last communication, when he was preparing to take a flight to Morocco. The lack of communication had been torturous.

But the news her husband Idris revealed was even worse. He explained that upon arrival in Morocco, he had been detained and imprisoned. Authorities stated he would be sent back to China. "Reach out to anyone who can help me," he urged, before the line went silent.

Existence as Uyghurs in Exile

The wife, 31 years old, and Idris, 37, are members of the mostly Muslim community, which makes up about half of the population in China's north-western Xinjiang province. Over the past decade, over a million Uyghurs are believed to have been imprisoned in alleged "re-education camps," where they faced mistreatment for commonplace actions like attending a place of worship or wearing a headscarf.

The couple had been among thousands of Uyghurs who escaped to Turkey during the 2010s. They thought they would find security in exile, but quickly found they were mistaken.

"I was told that the Chinese government warned to close all its industrial plants in the nation if Morocco released him," Zeynure said.

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure worked as an language instructor, while Idris started as a translator and artist, helping to produce Uyghur news and printed works. They had a family of three kids and enjoyed able to live as Muslims.

But when one of Idris's close friends, who worked in a book repository containing Uyghur books, was arrested in the summer of 2021, Idris became fearful. News indicated that Beijing was pressuring Turkey to extradite Uyghurs. Idris felt at risk due to his prior arrest, which he suspected was linked to his work with advocates and promoting Uyghur heritage. He chose to flee to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had lapsed, had to remain with the children until her husband could request a travel document for the whole family.

A Terrible Error

Departing Turkey turned out to be a disastrous decision. At the Istanbul airport, border control officials took Idris aside for questioning. "After he was eventually allowed to get on the plane, he told me how relieved he was that they had let him go, but it felt like a trap to me," she said. Her deepest concerns were realized when he was removed from the plane and detained by Moroccan authorities.

Over the last ten years, China has been utilizing the international police agency Interpol to pursue dissidents and had asked for Idris to be placed on the agency's high-priority "red notice list." Zeynure says Turkish officials let him take the flight knowing he would be arrested upon arrival in Morocco.

What happened next would lead her to do what many Uyghurs dread most: challenge China, despite 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 separated from her family since they visited her in Turkey in 2016 and were imprisoned for several 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 help you,'" Zeynure explained. "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. 'Avoid doing anything except caring for your children,' they told me. 'Don't say anything negative about China.'"

But with her husband's safety at stake, the softly spoken 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 resolved 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 social media or Twitter. But I had to do something to save my husband – I had to reveal the truth to the world. Everyone knows Uyghurs deported to China will be abused or die. They forced me to raise my voice."

Growing Up in Xinjiang

Zeynure has different types of memories of her childhood in Xinjiang. The first was of blissful days spent in the rural areas with her grandparents, who were farmers. "I used to play with the sheep and poultry. I don't know if I will ever have that kind of opportunity again. The relatives around the house and farm. It was too wonderful, like a picture from a book."

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

China says it is tackling extremism through 'controlling unauthorized religious activities' and 'training 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 religious journey to Mecca abroad were arrested and sent to jail and told they must have some problem in their brain.

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

She finally decided to leave China after coming back home from college in another part of China to a growing crackdown on beliefs in 2011. It was then that she was introduced to Idris by one of her classmates. "She was aware we both had made the choice to go abroad and told us perhaps we could get together and go together."

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

Fresh Start in Turkey

Within 60 days they were wed and prepared to move for a different existence in Turkey. They knew it was an Islamic country with many believers and Uyghurs already residing there, with a comparable tongue and shared ethnicity. "It was like Uyghurs' alternative homeland," says Zeynure. As a educator and creative, they could also support the Uyghur population in diaspora. "There are many kids now in China being raised without Uyghur culture or language so we think it's our responsibility to not let it disappear," she says.

But their relief at locating a place of safety overseas was short-lived. Beijing has become a global leader in targeting dissidents living in exile through the use of electronic surveillance, threats and physical assault. But what Idris was faced was a more recent method of repression: using China's growing economic leverage to force other nations to bend to its demands, including arresting and deporting Uyghurs it wants to silence.

Fighting for Release

After the call from Idris, and learning he had an Interpol alert hanging over him, Zeynure knew she only had a limited time of opportunity to try to prevent his extradition to China. She immediately contacted as many Uyghur advocacy organizations as she could find listed on the internet in the EU and the US and pleaded for assistance. She was fearless despite China having already demonstrated a willingness to go after the family members of other targets.

Zeynure started protesting with her children at the diplomatic mission in Istanbul, and posting updates on online platforms. To her amazement, copycat protests soon followed in Morocco calling for Idris's release. Moroccan officials were forced to issue a statement saying his extradition was a matter for the judicial system to decide.

In the start of August 2021, Interpol cancelled Idris's alert after being urged to reexamine 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 political influence from Beijing, which made {little sense|