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In the summer of 2021, a Uyghur woman named Zeynure was at her home in Istanbul when she answered a desperately anticipated phone call from her husband. There had been four stressful days since their last communication, when he was preparing to board a flight to Morocco. The silence had been difficult.

But the update her husband Idris shared was more alarming. He explained that upon arrival in Morocco, he had been taken into custody and imprisoned. Authorities informed him he would be extradited to China. "Contact everyone who can rescue me," he urged, before the line went silent.

Existence as Uyghurs in Exile

The wife, 31 years old, and Idris, in his late thirties, are part of the mostly Muslim community, which makes up about 50% of the population in China's north-western Xinjiang region. Over the last ten years, over a million Uyghurs are estimated to have been detained in so-called "re-education camps," where they faced mistreatment for commonplace acts like attending a place of worship or using a headscarf.

The couple had joined thousands of Uyghurs who fled to Turkey during the 2010s. They believed they would find safety in their new home, but soon found they were mistaken.

"Authorities informed me that the Beijing officials threatened 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 began as a interpreter and designer, assisting to produce Uyghur media and publications. They had three children and enjoyed able to live as followers of Islam.

But when one of Idris's best friends, who worked in a library stocking Uyghur books, was arrested in the mid-year of 2021, Idris panicked. News indicated that Beijing was pressuring Turkey to extradite Uyghurs. Idris felt vulnerable due to his prior arrest, which he suspected was connected to his work with advocates 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 travel document for the whole family.

A Terrible Error

Departing Turkey proved to be a disastrous decision. At the Istanbul airport, immigration officials pulled him aside for interrogation. "When he was eventually allowed 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," Zeynure recalled. Her deepest concerns were realized when he was taken off the plane and arrested by border officials.

Over the last ten years, China has been using the global police agency Interpol to target dissidents and had requested for Idris to be placed on the agency's most-wanted "red notice list." Zeynure says Turkish officials allowed him take the flight aware he would be apprehended upon arrival in Morocco.

What followed would lead her to do what many Uyghurs fear most: defy China, despite the consequences.

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 jailed for a few months upon their return 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 authorities 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. 'Don't do anything except caring for your children,' they told me. 'Don't say anything negative about China.'"

But with her husband's safety at stake, the softly spoken Zeynure was not going to stay quiet. She had grown up witnessing women having their hijabs ripped off in open by the authorities and had been resolved 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 Facebook or these platforms. But I had to do something to rescue my husband – I had to tell the truth to the world. Everyone knows Uyghurs sent to China will be abused or killed. They forced me to raise my voice."

Childhood in Xinjiang

Zeynure has two distinct types of recollections of her early years in Xinjiang. The first was of happy days spent in the rural areas with her elders, who were farmers. "I used to play with the sheep and poultry. I don't know if I will ever have that kind of opportunity again. The relatives around the house and land. It was too wonderful, like a picture from a book."

The second was as a religious minority in Xinjiang, of vacations interrupted by mandatory teachings of "political anthems" and being banned from going to the mosque or practicing Ramadan.

China says it is tackling radicalism through 'managing illegal religious activities' and 'vocational education centers', but other countries, including the US, say its actions constitute genocide. Zeynure says she never felt able to practice her religious beliefs in Xinjiang. "Individuals who went on pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia were detained and transferred to jail and told they must have some issue in their mind.

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

She finally decided to leave China after returning home from university in another part of China to a increasing repression on beliefs 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 choice to go abroad and told us maybe we could get together and go together."

Zeynure says she was immediately comforted by Idris. "I saw he was very truthful and reserved, and couldn't be dishonest 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 married and prepared to leave for a different existence in Turkey. They knew it was an Islamic country with many Muslims and Uyghurs already living there, with a similar tongue and common ethnicity. "It was like Uyghurs' second home," says Zeynure. As a teacher and creative, they could also support the Uyghur population in exile. "There are many children now in China growing up without Uyghur traditions 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 abroad was temporary. Beijing has become a global leader in targeting dissidents living in exile through the use of electronic surveillance, threats and physical assault. But what Idris was faced was a newer tool of repression: using China's increasing economic leverage to pressure other countries to bend to its demands, including arresting and deporting Uyghurs it wants to suppress.

Fighting for Release

After the call from Idris, and discovering he had an Interpol alert hanging over him, Zeynure knew she only had a short window of chance to try to prevent his extradition to China. She right away reached out to as many Uyghur support groups as she could find listed online in the EU and the US and pleaded for assistance. She was brave despite China having already shown a willingness to go after the relatives of other individuals.

Zeynure started demonstrating with her children at the diplomatic mission in Istanbul, and sharing information on online platforms. To her surprise, copycat protests soon followed in Morocco calling for Idris's release. Moroccan officials were compelled to put out a statement saying his extradition was a issue for the judicial system to determine.

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 deciding he should still be extradited to China. Zeynure says there was significant political influence from Beijing, which made {little sense|