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In July 2021, Zeynure Hasan was at her residence in Turkey's largest city when she received a desperately anticipated phone call from her husband. It had been four painful days since their last contact, when he was preparing to take a flight to Casablanca. The lack of communication had been torturous.

But the update her husband Idris shared was even worse. He explained that upon landing in Morocco, he had been taken into custody and jailed. Authorities informed him he would be sent back to China. "Contact everyone who can assist me," he urged, before the line went silent.

Life as Uyghurs in Exile

Zeynure, 31 years old, and Idris, in his late thirties, are part of the mostly Muslim ethnic group, which makes up about 50% of the residents in China's western Xinjiang province. Over the past decade, over a million Uyghurs are believed to have been imprisoned in so-called "re-education camps," where they faced abuse for ordinary actions like going to a place of worship or wearing a hijab.

The pair had been among many of Uyghurs who fled to Turkey during the 2010s. They hoped they would find safety in exile, but quickly realized they were wrong.

"Authorities informed me that the Chinese government warned to shut down all its industrial plants in the country if Morocco released him," Zeynure explained.

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure became an English teacher, while Idris began as a interpreter and artist, assisting to publish Uyghur media and printed works. They had a family of three kids and enjoyed able to live as Muslims.

But when one of Idris's close friends, who worked in a library containing Uyghur books, was arrested in the summer of 2021, Idris became fearful. News indicated that Beijing was pressuring Turkey to deport Uyghurs. Idris felt vulnerable due to his prior detention, which he suspected was linked to his work with advocates and supporting Uyghur heritage. 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 Mistake

Leaving Turkey proved to be a disastrous mistake. At the airport, immigration officials pulled him aside for questioning. "When he was eventually permitted to board the plane, he told me how happy he was that they had let him go, but it felt like a trap to me," Zeynure said. Her deepest concerns were confirmed when he was taken off the plane and detained by border officials.

Over the last ten years, China has been using the international police agency Interpol to pursue political refugees and had requested for Idris to be added on the agency's most-wanted "alert list." Zeynure claims Turkish officials let him board the flight aware he would be arrested upon arrival in Morocco.

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

Parental Interference

Soon after learning of her husband's detention, Zeynure got an unexpected phone call from her parents in Xinjiang. She had been cut off from her family 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 told me, 'We know your husband is not with you. Maybe we can help you,'" Zeynure explained. "I realized there must be some authorities there with them and just acted 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 life at risk, the softly spoken Zeynure was not going to stay quiet. She had been raised witnessing women having their hijabs forcibly removed in open by the police 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 rescue my husband – I had to tell the reality to the world. Everyone knows Uyghurs sent to China will be abused or die. They pushed me to speak out."

Childhood 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 elders, who were agricultural workers. "I used to play with the animals 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 wonderful, like a scene from a book."

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

China says it is addressing extremism through 'controlling unauthorized religious activities' and 'vocational education centers', but other countries, including the US, say its actions constitute ethnic cleansing. Zeynure says she never felt able to follow her faith in Xinjiang. "Individuals who went on pilgrimage to Mecca abroad were arrested and sent to jail and told they must have some problem in their mind.

"They aimed for Uyghur people to forget their religion and culture. They said 'you should trust in us, we gave you jobs and this beautiful living here'," says Zeynure.

She eventually decided to depart China after coming back 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 classmates. "She knew we both had made the decision to go abroad and told us perhaps we could meet 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 tell lies or do anything bad. 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 wed and ready to move for a different existence in Turkey. They knew it was an Islamic country with many Muslims and Uyghurs already living there, with a comparable tongue and common ethnicity. "It felt like Uyghurs' alternative homeland," says Zeynure. As a educator and creative, they could also help the Uyghur population in diaspora. "There are many kids now in China being raised without Uyghur culture or language so we think it's our duty to not let it die out," she says.

But their sense of safety at finding a secure location overseas was short-lived. Beijing has become a prominent force in pursuing critics abroad through the use of electronic surveillance, intimidation and violence. But what Idris was faced was a more recent tool of repression: using China's growing economic leverage to force other countries to bend to its will, including detaining and deporting Uyghurs it wants to suppress.

Fighting for Freedom

After the phone call from Idris, and discovering he had an Interpol red notice against him, Zeynure knew she only had a short window of opportunity to try to prevent his deportation to China. She right away contacted as many Uyghur advocacy organizations as she could find advertised on the internet in Europe and the US and begged for help. She was brave despite China having already shown a readiness to go after the family members of other targets.

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

In early August 2021, Interpol cancelled Idris's alert after being urged 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 significant diplomatic pressure from Beijing, which made {little sense|