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In July 2021, Zeynure Hasan was at her home in Istanbul when she got a long-awaited phone call from her husband. There had been four painful days since their last contact, when he was getting ready to board a flight to Morocco. The lack of communication had been difficult.

But the update her husband Idris shared was more alarming. He told her that upon landing in Morocco, he had been arrested and jailed. Authorities told him he would be sent back to China. "Reach out to anyone who can help me," he said, before the line went dead.

Existence as Ethnic Minority in Turkey

The wife, 31 years old, and Idris, 37, are part of the Uyghur ethnic group, which makes up about half of the residents in China's north-western Xinjiang region. Over the past decade, more than a 1,000,000 Uyghurs are estimated to have been imprisoned in alleged "re-education camps," where they faced abuse for ordinary actions like attending a mosque or wearing a hijab.

The pair had joined many of Uyghurs who fled to Turkey during the previous decade. They hoped they would find refuge in their new home, but soon realized they were wrong.

"I was told that the Beijing officials warned to shut down all its factories in the nation if Morocco freed him," Zeynure stated.

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure became an English teacher, while Idris started as a interpreter and designer, helping to publish Uyghur media and publications. They had three children and felt able to practice as followers of Islam.

But when one of Idris's best friends, who was employed in a book repository stocking Uyghur books, was detained in the summer of 2021, Idris panicked. Reports indicated that Beijing was pressuring Turkey to deport Uyghurs. Idris felt at risk due to his prior detention, which he suspected was linked to his work with advocates and promoting Uyghur culture. He chose to escape to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had expired, had to stay behind with the children until her husband could apply for a visa for the whole family.

A Costly Mistake

Leaving Turkey turned out to be a disastrous mistake. At the Istanbul airport, immigration officials pulled him aside for interrogation. "After he was finally permitted to get on the plane, he told me how relieved he was that they had released him, but it felt like a trap to me," Zeynure recalled. Her worst fears were realized when he was removed from the plane and arrested by Moroccan authorities.

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

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

Parental Pressure

Shortly after hearing of her husband's arrest, 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 jailed for a few months upon their return to China.

Her parents had a chilling message. "They told me, 'We know your husband is not with you. Maybe we can help you,'" she stated. "I knew 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. 'Don't do anything except feeding your children,' they told me. 'Don't say anything negative about China.'"

But with her husband's safety at risk, the quiet-mannered Zeynure was not going to stay quiet. She had grown up witnessing women having their head coverings forcibly removed in open by the police and had been resolved 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 rescue my husband – I had to reveal the reality to the world. Everyone knows Uyghurs sent to China will be abused or killed. They forced me to speak out."

Growing Up in Xinjiang

Zeynure has different 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 agricultural workers. "I used to play with the sheep and poultry. I don't know if I will ever have that kind of chance again. The relatives around the home and farm. It was too beautiful, like a picture from a book."

The second was as a religious minority in Xinjiang, of school holidays interrupted by forced teachings of "communist songs" and being banned from attending the mosque or observing Ramadan.

China claims it is tackling extremism through 'controlling unauthorized religious activities' and 'vocational education facilities', but other countries, including the US, say its actions amount to genocide. Zeynure says she never felt free to follow her religious beliefs in Xinjiang. "Individuals who went on religious journey to Mecca abroad were detained and sent to jail and told they must have some problem in their mind.

"They aimed for Uyghur people to forget their faith 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 another part of China to a growing repression on beliefs in 2011. It was then that she was introduced to Idris by one of her classmates. "She was aware we both had made the decision to go overseas and told us maybe we could meet and go together."

Zeynure says she was immediately reassured 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 different."

Fresh Start in Turkey

Within 60 days they were married and ready to move for a different existence in Turkey. They knew it was an Islamic country with many believers and Uyghurs already residing there, with a comparable language and shared background. "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 being raised 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 place of safety overseas was temporary. Beijing has become a prominent force in targeting dissidents abroad through the use of monitoring, threats and physical assault. But what Idris was subjected to was a newer method of repression: using China's increasing financial influence to pressure other nations to bend to its demands, including arresting and extraditing Uyghurs it wants to silence.

Fighting for Release

After the call from Idris, and learning he had an Interpol alert against him, Zeynure knew she only had a limited time of chance to try to prevent his extradition to China. She immediately contacted as many Uyghur support groups as she could find advertised on the internet in the EU and the US and begged for assistance. She was brave despite China having already shown a readiness to target the family members of other individuals.

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

In the start of August 2021, Interpol withdrew Idris's alert after being urged to review his case by human rights groups. But that did not stop a Moroccan court later deciding he should still be sent back to China. Zeynure says there was significant political influence from Beijing, which made {little sense|