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

But the news her husband Idris shared was more alarming. He told her that upon landing in Morocco, he had been arrested and imprisoned. Authorities told him he would be sent back to China. "Contact everyone who can help me," he urged, before the line went dead.

Life as Ethnic Minority in Exile

Zeynure, 31 years old, and Idris, 37, are members of the Uyghur ethnic group, which constitutes about 50% of the population in China's western Xinjiang region. Over the past decade, more than a 1,000,000 Uyghurs are believed to have been detained in so-called "re-education camps," where they faced abuse for commonplace acts like attending a mosque or using a hijab.

The pair had been among many of Uyghurs who fled to Turkey during the 2010s. They believed they would find safety in their new home, but soon found they were mistaken.

"Authorities informed me that the Beijing officials threatened to close all its industrial plants in the country if Morocco freed him," she explained.

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure worked as an English teacher, while Idris started as a interpreter and designer, helping to publish Uyghur media and publications. They had a family of three kids and enjoyed able to practice as Muslims.

But when one of Idris's close friends, who was employed in a book repository containing Uyghur books, was arrested in the mid-year of 2021, Idris panicked. News indicated that Beijing was pressuring Turkey to extradite Uyghurs. Idris felt at risk due to his prior detention, which he suspected was linked to his work with activists 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 travel document for the whole family.

A Terrible Error

Departing Turkey proved to be a terrible decision. At the airport, immigration officials pulled him aside for interrogation. "After he was finally permitted to board the plane, he told me how happy he was that they had released him, but it felt like a set-up to me," she recalled. Her worst fears were confirmed when he was removed from the plane and detained by border officials.

Over the past decade, China has been utilizing the international police agency Interpol to pursue dissidents and had asked for Idris to be added on the agency's most-wanted "alert list." Zeynure says Turkish officials allowed him board the flight knowing he would be arrested upon arrival in Morocco.

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

Family Pressure

Soon after learning of her husband's detention, Zeynure got an unexpected phone call from her parents in Xinjiang. She had been cut off from her relatives since they visited her in Turkey in 2016 and were jailed for a few months upon their going back to China.

Her parents had a disturbing message. "They told me, 'We know your husband is not with you. Perhaps we can help you,'" she explained. "I knew 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 feeding your children,' they told me. 'Avoid saying anything bad about China.'"

But with her husband's safety at stake, the quiet-mannered Zeynure was not going to stay quiet. She had grown up seeing women having their head coverings ripped off in open 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 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 sent to China will be tortured or die. They pushed me to raise my voice."

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 chickens. I don't know if I will ever have that type of opportunity again. The relatives around the house and land. It was too wonderful, like a scene from a book."

The second was as a Muslim Uyghur in Xinjiang, of vacations cut short by mandatory teachings of "political anthems" and being banned from attending the mosque or practicing Ramadan.

China claims it is addressing radicalism through 'controlling illegal religious activities' and 'training centers', but other nations, including the US, say its actions amount to ethnic cleansing. Zeynure says she never felt free to practice her faith in Xinjiang. "People who went on religious journey to Mecca abroad were detained and sent to prison and told they must have some issue in their brain.

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

She finally decided to leave China after returning home from college in Eastern China to a growing repression on religious freedoms in 2011. It was then that she was connected to Idris by one of her classmates. "She knew we both had taken the choice to go overseas and told us maybe we could get together and go as a group."

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

A New Life in Turkey

Within two months they were wed and prepared to leave for a different existence in Turkey. They knew it was an Muslim-majority country with many Muslims and Uyghurs already residing there, with a comparable tongue and common ethnicity. "It was like Uyghurs' alternative homeland," says Zeynure. As a educator and designer, they could also support the community in exile. "There are many kids now in China growing up without Uyghur traditions or dialect so we think it's our duty to not let it die out," she says.

But their relief at locating a secure location abroad was temporary. Beijing has become a prominent force in pursuing dissidents abroad through the use of electronic surveillance, intimidation and physical assault. But what Idris was faced was a more recent tool of control: using China's growing financial influence to pressure other nations to yield to its demands, 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 against him, Zeynure knew she only had a limited time of opportunity to try to stop his deportation to China. She immediately contacted as many Uyghur support groups as she could find listed on the internet in Europe and the US and begged for assistance. She was fearless despite China having already shown a willingness to target the family members of other targets.

Zeynure started demonstrating with her children at the Moroccan embassy in Istanbul, and posting updates on online platforms. To her amazement, copycat protests soon occurred in Morocco calling for Idris's freedom. Moroccan officials were forced to issue a announcement saying his deportation was a matter for the judicial system to decide.

In the start of August 2021, Interpol cancelled Idris's red notice after being pressed to review his case by human rights groups. But that did not stop a Moroccan court later ruling he should still be extradited to China. Zeynure says there was huge diplomatic pressure from Beijing, which made {little sense|