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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 agonizing days since their last communication, when he was preparing to board a flight to Casablanca. The lack of communication had been unbearable.

But the information her husband Idris shared was more alarming. He told her that upon landing in Morocco, he had been detained and imprisoned. Authorities informed him he would be extradited to China. "Contact anyone who can rescue me," he urged, before the line went dead.

Existence as Ethnic Minority in Turkey

Zeynure, 31 years old, and Idris, in his late thirties, are members of the mostly Muslim ethnic group, which constitutes about half of the population in China's north-western Xinjiang region. Over the last ten years, more than a 1,000,000 Uyghurs are reported to have been imprisoned in so-called "re-education camps," where they faced torture for ordinary actions like going to a place of worship or using a headscarf.

The pair had joined thousands of Uyghurs who escaped to Turkey during the previous decade. They believed they would find safety in their new home, but quickly discovered they were mistaken.

"I was told that the Beijing officials threatened to shut down all its industrial plants in the country if Morocco freed him," Zeynure stated.

After settling in Istanbul, Zeynure worked as an language instructor, while Idris began as a interpreter and designer, helping to produce Uyghur news and publications. They had three children and enjoyed free 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 mid-year of 2021, Idris panicked. Reports indicated that Beijing was pressuring Turkey to deport Uyghurs. Idris felt at risk due to his previous arrest, which he suspected was linked to his work with advocates and supporting Uyghur culture. He chose to escape to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had lapsed, had to remain with the children until her husband could apply for a visa for the family.

A Terrible Mistake

Departing Turkey turned out to be a disastrous mistake. At the airport, immigration officials pulled him aside for interrogation. "When he was eventually permitted to get on the plane, he told me how relieved he was that they had let him go, but it felt like a set-up to me," she said. Her worst fears were confirmed when he was removed from the plane and arrested by border officials.

Over the last ten years, China has been utilizing the global police agency Interpol to target political refugees and had asked for Idris to be added on the agency's high-priority "red notice list." Zeynure says Turkish officials let him board the flight aware he would be apprehended upon arrival in Morocco.

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

Parental Pressure

Soon after learning of her husband's detention, Zeynure got 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 said, 'We know your husband is not with you. Perhaps we can help you,'" she explained. "I knew there must be some police there with them and just pretended like I didn't know anything. But they persisted and told me not to do anything to help my husband. 'Avoid doing anything except caring for your children,' they told me. 'Avoid saying anything negative about China.'"

But with her husband's life at stake, the softly spoken Zeynure was not going to stay quiet. She had grown up witnessing women having their head coverings forcibly removed in open by the authorities and had been determined to live in a country with freedom of belief.

"Before 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 Twitter. 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 forced me to raise my voice."

Growing Up in Xinjiang

Zeynure has two distinct types of recollections of her childhood in Xinjiang. The first was of blissful days spent in the countryside with her elders, who were agricultural workers. "I used to play with the sheep and poultry. I don't know if I will ever have that kind of opportunity again. The family around the home and land. It was too beautiful, like a scene from a story."

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

China claims it is addressing radicalism through 'controlling illegal religious activities' and 'vocational education facilities', but other nations, including the US, say its actions constitute ethnic cleansing. Zeynure says she never felt able to practice her religious beliefs in Xinjiang. "Individuals who went on religious journey to Mecca in Saudi Arabia were arrested and sent to jail and told they must have some problem in their mind.

"They wanted Uyghur people to forget their religion and culture. They said 'you should believe in us, we provided you employment and this good living here'," says Zeynure.

She eventually decided to depart China after returning home from college in Eastern China to a growing crackdown on religious freedoms in 2011. It was then that she was introduced to Idris by one of her school friends. "She was aware we both had taken the decision to go overseas and told us perhaps we could get together and go as a group."

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

Fresh Start in Turkey

Within two months they were married and ready to leave for a new life in Turkey. They knew it was an Islamic country with many Muslims and Uyghurs already residing there, with a comparable language and shared ethnicity. "It felt like Uyghurs' alternative homeland," says Zeynure. As a educator and creative, they could also help the Uyghur population in exile. "We have many kids now in China growing up without Uyghur traditions or language so we think it's our duty to not let it disappear," she says.

But their sense of safety at locating a secure location abroad was temporary. Beijing has become a global leader in pursuing critics abroad through the use of electronic surveillance, threats and violence. But what Idris was faced was a newer method of repression: using China's growing economic leverage to pressure other nations to yield to its demands, including arresting and deporting Uyghurs it wants to suppress.

Fighting for Freedom

After the call from Idris, and discovering he had an Interpol red notice against him, Zeynure knew she only had a limited time of opportunity to try to prevent his extradition to China. She right away contacted as many Uyghur support groups as she could find advertised on the internet in Europe and the US and begged for assistance. She was brave despite China having already demonstrated a readiness to go after the relatives of other targets.

Zeynure started demonstrating with her children at the Moroccan embassy in Istanbul, and posting information on online platforms. To her surprise, similar protests soon occurred in Morocco demanding Idris's freedom. Moroccan officials were compelled to issue a announcement saying his extradition was a issue for the judicial system to determine.

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 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|