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In the summer of 2021, a Uyghur woman named Zeynure was at her home in Turkey's largest city when she answered a long-awaited phone call from her husband. It had been four agonizing days since their last contact, when he was preparing to board a flight to Casablanca. The silence had been difficult.

But the information her husband Idris revealed was even worse. He informed her that upon arrival in Morocco, he had been taken into custody and jailed. Authorities informed him he would be deported to China. "Contact anyone who can assist me," he pleaded, before the line went dead.

Life as Uyghurs in Turkey

Zeynure, in her early thirties, and Idris, 37, are part of the mostly Muslim ethnic group, which constitutes about 50% of the population in China's western Xinjiang province. Over the last ten years, more than a million Uyghurs are believed to have been detained in so-called "re-education camps," where they faced abuse for ordinary acts like attending a mosque or wearing a hijab.

The pair had joined many of Uyghurs who fled to Turkey during the previous decade. They believed they would find safety in exile, but soon discovered they were wrong.

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

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure became an English teacher, while Idris began as a interpreter and designer, helping to publish Uyghur news and publications. They had three children and felt able to practice as Muslims.

But when one of Idris's close friends, who was employed in a library stocking Uyghur books, was arrested in the summer 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 connected to his work with activists and promoting Uyghur heritage. He decided to flee to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had lapsed, had to stay behind with the children until her husband could apply for a travel document for the whole family.

A Terrible Mistake

Departing Turkey turned out to be a disastrous mistake. At the airport, immigration officials took Idris aside for interrogation. "When he was eventually allowed to get on 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 confirmed when he was removed from the plane and detained by border officials.

Over the past decade, China has been using the international police agency Interpol to pursue dissidents and had requested for Idris to be added on the agency's most-wanted "red notice list." Zeynure claims Turkish officials let 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: challenge China, despite the risks.

Family Interference

Soon after hearing of her husband's arrest, Zeynure got an unexpected phone call from her parents in Xinjiang. She had been separated from her relatives since they came to see her in Turkey in 2016 and were imprisoned for a few months upon their going back to China.

Her parents had a disturbing warning. "They said, 'We know your husband is not with you. Maybe we can assist you,'" she stated. "I knew there must be some authorities there with them and just pretended like I didn't know anything. But they insisted and told me not to do anything to help my husband. 'Avoid doing anything except feeding your children,' they told me. 'Avoid saying anything bad about China.'"

But with her husband's life at risk, the softly spoken Zeynure was not going to remain silent. She had been raised witnessing 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 caring for my family; I didn't even have Facebook or these platforms. But I had to do something to save my husband – I had to reveal the reality to the world. Everyone knows Uyghurs deported to China will be abused or killed. They pushed me to speak out."

Growing Up 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 farmers. "I'd play with the animals and chickens. I don't know if I will ever have that kind of chance again. The relatives around the home and land. It was too beautiful, like a picture from a story."

The second was as a religious minority in Xinjiang, of vacations cut short by mandatory teachings of "communist songs" and being banned from attending the mosque or practicing Ramadan.

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

"They wanted Uyghur people to forget their faith and culture. They said 'you should believe in us, we gave you jobs and this beautiful life here'," says Zeynure.

She finally decided to leave China after returning home from college in another part of China to a growing crackdown on religious freedoms 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 overseas and told us perhaps we could meet and go as a group."

Zeynure says she was right away reassured by Idris. "I saw he was very truthful and reserved, and couldn't tell lies or do anything bad. There were some Uyghur boys at university who wanted to marry me, but Idris was different."

Fresh Start in Turkey

Within two months they were married and ready to move for a different existence in Turkey. They knew it was an Muslim-majority country with many Muslims and Uyghurs already living there, with a comparable language and shared background. "It was like Uyghurs' alternative homeland," says Zeynure. As a teacher and creative, they could also help the community in exile. "There are many children now in China being raised without Uyghur culture or dialect so we think it's our responsibility to not let it disappear," she says.

But their sense of safety at finding a secure location abroad was short-lived. Beijing has become a prominent force in targeting critics living in exile through the use of electronic surveillance, intimidation and physical assault. But what Idris was faced was a newer tool of control: using China's increasing financial influence to force other countries to yield to its demands, including detaining and deporting Uyghurs it wants to silence.

Campaigning for Release

After the phone call from Idris, and discovering he had an Interpol alert hanging over him, Zeynure knew she only had a short window of chance to try to prevent his extradition to China. She immediately contacted as many Uyghur support groups as she could find advertised online in Europe and the US and begged for assistance. She was brave despite China having already shown a willingness to go after the relatives of other individuals.

Zeynure started demonstrating with her children at the Moroccan embassy in Istanbul, and posting updates on social media. To her amazement, copycat protests soon followed in Morocco demanding Idris's freedom. Moroccan officials were forced to put out a announcement saying his deportation was a matter for the judicial system to determine.

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