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In the summer of 2021, Zeynure Hasan was at her home in Istanbul when she received a desperately anticipated phone call from her husband. It had been four stressful days since their last contact, when he was preparing to take a flight to Casablanca. The silence had been torturous.

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

Existence as Uyghurs in Exile

The wife, in her early thirties, and Idris, in his late thirties, are part of the mostly Muslim community, which makes up about 50% of the population in China's western Xinjiang region. Over the last ten years, more than a 1,000,000 Uyghurs are reported to have been imprisoned in alleged "re-education camps," where they faced torture for commonplace actions like going to a place of worship or using a hijab.

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

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

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure worked as an English teacher, while Idris began as a translator and artist, assisting to publish Uyghur news and printed works. They had three children and felt free to practice as Muslims.

But when one of Idris's close friends, who worked in a library containing Uyghur books, was detained in the summer of 2021, Idris became fearful. Reports indicated that Beijing was urging Turkey to extradite Uyghurs. Idris felt at risk due to his previous arrest, which he suspected was linked to his work with activists and promoting Uyghur heritage. He decided to escape to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had expired, had to remain with the children until her husband could apply for a travel document for the whole family.

A Terrible Mistake

Departing Turkey proved to be a disastrous mistake. At the airport, border control officials took Idris aside for questioning. "When he was eventually permitted to board the plane, he told me how relieved he was that they had released him, but it felt like a trap to me," she said. Her deepest concerns were confirmed when he was removed from the plane and arrested by border officials.

Over the last ten years, China has been using the global police agency Interpol to pursue political refugees and had asked for Idris to be placed on the agency's high-priority "red notice list." Zeynure claims Turkish officials allowed him take the flight knowing he would be apprehended upon landing in Morocco.

What followed would lead her to do what many Uyghurs dread most: challenge China, despite the risks.

Parental Interference

Shortly after hearing of her husband's detention, Zeynure got an surprising phone call from her family in Xinjiang. She had been separated from her relatives since they came to see her in Turkey in 2016 and were imprisoned for several months upon their going back to China.

Her parents had a disturbing warning. "They told me, 'We know your husband is not with you. Maybe we can assist you,'" she explained. "I knew there must be some police 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. 'Don't do anything except feeding your children,' they told me. 'Avoid saying anything negative about China.'"

But with her husband's life at stake, the quiet-mannered Zeynure was not going to remain silent. She had been raised seeing women having their head coverings forcibly removed in public by the authorities and had been determined to live in a country with freedom of belief.

"Prior to my husband was arrested in Morocco, I didn't do anything. I was just looking after my family; I didn't even have social media or Twitter. But I had to do something to rescue my husband – I had to reveal the reality to the world. Everyone knows Uyghurs sent to China will be tortured or die. They forced me to raise my voice."

Childhood in Xinjiang

Zeynure has different types of recollections of her childhood in Xinjiang. The first was of happy days spent in the countryside with her grandparents, who were farmers. "I'd play with the sheep and chickens. I don't know if I will ever have that kind of opportunity again. The relatives around the house and land. It was too beautiful, like a scene from a story."

The second was as a religious minority in Xinjiang, of school holidays cut short by forced teachings of "political anthems" and being banned from attending the mosque or practicing Ramadan.

China claims it is tackling extremism through 'controlling unauthorized religious activities' and 'vocational education centers', but other nations, including the US, say its actions amount to genocide. Zeynure says she never felt free to practice her faith in Xinjiang. "Individuals who went on pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia were detained and sent to jail and told they must have some issue in their mind.

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

She finally decided to depart China after returning home from college in another part of China to a increasing repression 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 abroad and told us perhaps we could get together and go as a group."

Zeynure says she was right away comforted by Idris. "I realized he was very truthful 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."

A New Life in Turkey

Within two months they were wed and ready to move for a new life in Turkey. They knew it was an Muslim-majority country with many Muslims and Uyghurs already living there, with a comparable tongue and shared background. "It felt like Uyghurs' alternative homeland," says Zeynure. As a teacher and creative, they could also support the Uyghur population in exile. "We have many children now in China growing up without Uyghur traditions or language so we think it's our responsibility to not let it die out," she says.

But their sense of safety at finding a secure location overseas was temporary. Beijing has become a prominent force in pursuing dissidents living in exile through the use of electronic surveillance, threats and physical assault. But what Idris was subjected to was a newer method of control: using China's growing economic leverage to pressure other nations to yield to its will, including detaining and extraditing Uyghurs it wants to suppress.

Campaigning for Freedom

After the phone call from Idris, and learning he had an Interpol red notice against him, Zeynure knew she only had a limited time of opportunity to try to stop his extradition to China. She immediately contacted as many Uyghur support groups 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 shown a readiness to target the family members of other individuals.

Zeynure started demonstrating with her children at the Moroccan embassy in Istanbul, and sharing updates on online platforms. To her surprise, copycat protests soon occurred in Morocco demanding Idris's release. Moroccan officials were forced to put out a announcement saying his extradition was a matter for the courts to decide.

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