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In July 2021, Zeynure Hasan was at her residence in Turkey's largest city when she got a desperately anticipated phone call from her husband. It had been four stressful days since their last communication, when he was preparing to board a flight to Morocco. The lack of communication had been unbearable.

But the update her husband Idris delivered was more alarming. He explained that upon arrival in Morocco, he had been arrested and jailed. Authorities told him he would be deported to China. "Contact anyone who can help me," he said, before the line went dead.

Life as Uyghurs in Exile

Zeynure, 31 years old, and Idris, in his late thirties, are part of the Uyghur ethnic group, which makes up about half of the residents in China's north-western Xinjiang region. Over the past decade, over a million Uyghurs are estimated to have been detained in alleged "vocational training camps," where they faced abuse for ordinary actions like attending a mosque or using a hijab.

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

"Authorities informed me that the Beijing officials warned to close all its factories in the country if Morocco freed him," Zeynure stated.

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure became an English teacher, while Idris started as a translator and artist, assisting to publish Uyghur news and publications. They had a family of three kids and enjoyed free to live as followers of Islam.

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 urging Turkey to deport Uyghurs. Idris felt vulnerable due to his previous arrest, which he believed was linked to his work with activists and promoting Uyghur culture. 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 Costly Error

Leaving Turkey proved to be a terrible decision. At the Istanbul airport, border control officials took Idris aside for interrogation. "When he was finally permitted 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 recalled. Her worst fears were realized when he was taken off the plane and detained by border officials.

Over the past decade, China has been using the global police agency Interpol to target political refugees and had requested for Idris to be added on the agency's most-wanted "red notice list." Zeynure claims Turkish officials let him take the flight aware he would be apprehended upon arrival in Morocco.

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

Family Interference

Soon after hearing of her husband's arrest, Zeynure got an surprising phone call from her parents in Xinjiang. She had been cut off from her family since they visited her in Turkey in 2016 and were jailed for a few months upon their return to China.

Her parents had a chilling message. "They said, 'We know your husband is not with you. Maybe 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. 'Avoid doing anything except feeding your children,' they told me. 'Avoid saying anything negative about China.'"

But with her husband's life at risk, the softly spoken Zeynure was not going to stay quiet. She had been raised witnessing women having their head coverings forcibly removed 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 tell the truth to the world. Everyone knows Uyghurs sent to China will be tortured or die. They forced me to speak out."

Childhood 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 elders, who were farmers. "I used to play with the sheep and chickens. I don't know if I will ever have that type of opportunity again. The family around the home and farm. It was too wonderful, like a picture from a book."

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

China claims it is tackling radicalism through 'controlling unauthorized religious activities' and 'vocational education facilities', but other nations, including the US, say its actions amount to genocide. Zeynure says she never felt free to practice her religious beliefs in Xinjiang. "Individuals who went on religious journey to Mecca abroad were detained and transferred to prison and told they must have some issue in their brain.

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

She finally decided to depart China after coming back home from university in Eastern China to a growing repression 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 decision to go overseas and told us maybe we could get together and go together."

Zeynure says she was immediately comforted by Idris. "I realized 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 unique."

Fresh Start in Turkey

Within two months they were wed and ready to move for a different existence in Turkey. They knew it was an Islamic country with many Muslims and Uyghurs already residing there, with a similar language and shared background. "It was like Uyghurs' alternative homeland," says Zeynure. As a educator and designer, they could also help the community in diaspora. "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 disappear," she says.

But their relief at locating a place of safety abroad was temporary. Beijing has become a global leader in targeting critics abroad through the use of monitoring, intimidation and violence. But what Idris was subjected to was a more recent method of control: using China's increasing economic leverage to force other countries to bend to its demands, including detaining and deporting Uyghurs it wants to silence.

Fighting for Freedom

After the call from Idris, and discovering he had an Interpol alert against him, Zeynure knew she only had a short window of chance to try to prevent his extradition to China. She right away contacted as many Uyghur support groups as she could find advertised online in the EU and the US and begged for assistance. She was fearless despite China having already demonstrated a willingness to target the relatives of other individuals.

Zeynure started demonstrating with her children at the diplomatic mission in Istanbul, and posting updates on online platforms. To her surprise, similar protests soon occurred in Morocco calling for Idris's release. Moroccan officials were forced to put out a announcement saying his extradition was a matter for the judicial system to decide.

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