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In July 2021, a Uyghur woman named Zeynure was at her residence 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 lack of communication had been torturous.

But the news her husband Idris delivered was even worse. He told her that upon arrival in Morocco, he had been detained and jailed. Authorities informed him he would be extradited to China. "Call anyone who can rescue me," he urged, before the line went silent.

Existence as Ethnic Minority in Exile

The wife, in her early thirties, and Idris, in his late thirties, are members of the mostly Muslim ethnic group, which constitutes about 50% of the residents in China's western Xinjiang region. Over the past decade, over a 1,000,000 Uyghurs are reported to have been detained in so-called "re-education camps," where they faced mistreatment for ordinary acts like attending a place of worship or wearing a headscarf.

The pair had joined thousands of Uyghurs who escaped to Turkey during the 2010s. They hoped they would find safety in their new home, but quickly found they were wrong.

"I was told that the Beijing officials warned to shut down all its industrial plants in the nation if Morocco released him," she stated.

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure became an language instructor, while Idris began as a interpreter and designer, assisting to produce Uyghur media and printed works. They had a family of three kids and enjoyed able to live as followers of Islam.

But when one of Idris's best friends, who was employed in a library stocking Uyghur books, was arrested in the summer of 2021, Idris panicked. Reports indicated that Beijing was urging 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 chose to escape to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had expired, had to remain with the children until her husband could request a visa for the family.

A Costly Error

Departing Turkey turned out to be a terrible mistake. At the Istanbul 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 trap to me," she recalled. Her worst fears were realized when he was taken off the plane and detained by Moroccan authorities.

Over the past decade, China has been using the global police agency Interpol to target dissidents and had requested for Idris to be placed on the agency's high-priority "red notice list." Zeynure claims Turkish officials let him take the flight aware he would be arrested upon landing in Morocco.

What happened next would lead her to do what many Uyghurs dread most: defy China, regardless of the risks.

Parental Interference

Shortly after hearing of her husband's arrest, Zeynure got an unexpected phone call from her family in Xinjiang. She had been separated from her family since they came to see her in Turkey in 2016 and were jailed for several 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 assist you,'" she stated. "I realized 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. 'Don't say anything bad about China.'"

But with her husband's safety at risk, the quiet-mannered Zeynure was not going to remain silent. She had grown up seeing women having their hijabs forcibly removed in open by the authorities and had been determined to live in a country with religious freedom.

"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 tell the truth to the world. Everyone knows Uyghurs sent to China will be abused or killed. They pushed me to speak out."

Growing Up in Xinjiang

Zeynure has different types of memories of her early years in Xinjiang. The first was of happy days spent in the rural areas with her grandparents, who were agricultural workers. "I'd play with the animals and poultry. I don't know if I will ever have that type of chance again. The relatives around the home and land. It was too wonderful, like a picture from a story."

The second was as a religious minority in Xinjiang, of school holidays interrupted by mandatory teachings of "political anthems" and being banned from attending the religious site or observing Ramadan.

China says it is tackling extremism through 'managing illegal religious activities' and 'training facilities', but other nations, including the US, say its actions amount to ethnic cleansing. Zeynure says she never felt able to follow her faith in Xinjiang. "Individuals 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 provided you employment and this beautiful life here'," says Zeynure.

She finally decided to depart China after returning home from college in Eastern China to a growing crackdown on beliefs in 2011. It was then that she was introduced to Idris by one of her school friends. "She knew we both had taken the choice to go abroad and told us maybe we could meet and go together."

Zeynure says she was right away comforted by Idris. "I realized he was very truthful and shy, and couldn't tell lies or do anything bad. There were some Uyghur boys at university who wanted to wed me, but Idris was unique."

Fresh Start in Turkey

Within 60 days they were wed and prepared to leave for a new life in Turkey. They knew it was an Islamic country with many Muslims and Uyghurs already living there, with a similar tongue and shared background. "It felt like Uyghurs' alternative homeland," says Zeynure. As a educator and designer, they could also help the community in exile. "There are many kids now in China growing up without Uyghur traditions or dialect so we think it's our responsibility to not let it disappear," she says.

But their relief at locating a place of safety overseas was short-lived. Beijing has become a prominent force in targeting dissidents living in exile through the use of electronic surveillance, threats and physical assault. But what Idris was faced was a more recent method of repression: using China's increasing economic leverage to force other countries to yield to its demands, including detaining and deporting Uyghurs it wants to silence.

Campaigning for Freedom

After the call from Idris, and learning he had an Interpol red notice hanging over him, Zeynure knew she only had a limited time of chance to try to prevent his extradition to China. She right away reached out to as many Uyghur advocacy organizations as she could find advertised on the internet in the EU and the US and pleaded for help. She was fearless despite China having already shown a willingness to go after the family members of other individuals.

Zeynure started protesting with her children at the Moroccan embassy in Istanbul, and posting information on social media. To her surprise, copycat protests soon followed in Morocco demanding Idris's release. Moroccan officials were forced to put out a statement saying his deportation was a matter for the courts to decide.

In early August 2021, Interpol cancelled Idris's alert after being urged to reexamine his case by advocacy organizations. But that did not prevent 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|