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In the summer of 2021, a Uyghur woman named Zeynure was at her residence in Turkey's largest city when she got a desperately anticipated phone call from her husband. There had been four painful days since their last communication, when he was preparing to take a flight to Morocco. The silence had been unbearable.

But the information her husband Idris delivered was more devastating. He explained that upon landing in Morocco, he had been arrested and jailed. Authorities told him he would be extradited to China. "Reach out to everyone who can assist me," he said, before the line went dead.

Life as Uyghurs in Turkey

The wife, 31 years old, and Idris, 37, are members of the Uyghur community, which constitutes about 50% of the population in China's north-western Xinjiang region. Over the last ten years, 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 mosque or using a headscarf.

The couple had been among thousands of Uyghurs who escaped to Turkey during the previous decade. They thought they would find security in exile, but quickly realized they were mistaken.

"I was told that the Chinese government threatened to close all its industrial plants in the country if Morocco released him," Zeynure stated.

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure worked as an language instructor, while Idris started as a translator and artist, helping to publish Uyghur media and printed works. They had a family of three kids and felt able to practice as followers of Islam.

But when one of Idris's best friends, who worked in a library stocking Uyghur books, was arrested in the summer of 2021, Idris became fearful. News indicated that Beijing was pressuring Turkey to deport Uyghurs. Idris felt at risk 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 apply for a travel document for the family.

A Costly Mistake

Leaving Turkey proved to be a disastrous decision. At the airport, border control officials pulled him aside for interrogation. "After he was finally 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," she said. Her worst fears 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 target dissidents and had requested for Idris to be added on the agency's most-wanted "red notice list." Zeynure says Turkish officials let him take the flight knowing he would be apprehended upon landing in Morocco.

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

Family Interference

Shortly after hearing of her husband's arrest, Zeynure received an surprising phone call from her family in Xinjiang. She had been cut off 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 message. "They said, 'We know your husband is not with you. Perhaps we can help you,'" Zeynure explained. "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. 'Don't do anything except caring for your children,' they told me. 'Avoid saying anything negative about China.'"

But with her husband's life at risk, the softly spoken Zeynure was not going to stay quiet. She had grown up seeing women having their hijabs ripped off in public by the police 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 social media or these platforms. But I had to do something to rescue my husband – I had to reveal the reality to the international community. Everyone knows Uyghurs sent to China will be abused or die. They forced me to speak out."

Growing Up in Xinjiang

Zeynure has two distinct types of recollections of her childhood in Xinjiang. The first was of blissful days spent in the rural areas with her elders, who were farmers. "I used to play with the animals and poultry. I don't know if I will ever have that kind of chance again. The family around the home and land. It was too wonderful, like a scene from a story."

The second was as a Muslim Uyghur in Xinjiang, of vacations interrupted by forced teachings of "political anthems" and being prohibited from attending the mosque or observing Ramadan.

China says it is addressing extremism through 'controlling unauthorized religious activities' and 'training facilities', but other nations, including the US, say its actions amount to ethnic cleansing. Zeynure says she never felt free to practice her faith in Xinjiang. "Individuals who went on religious journey to Mecca abroad were detained and transferred to prison and told they must have some issue 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 life here'," says Zeynure.

She finally decided to leave China after returning home from university in Eastern China to a increasing repression on religious freedoms in 2011. It was then that she was connected to Idris by one of her classmates. "She knew we both had made 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 reserved, and couldn't tell lies or do anything bad. There were some Uyghur boys at university who wanted to wed 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 Muslim-majority country with many believers and Uyghurs already residing there, with a comparable tongue and shared background. "It felt like Uyghurs' alternative homeland," says Zeynure. As a teacher and designer, they could also help the Uyghur population in diaspora. "There are many kids now in China being raised without Uyghur traditions or dialect so we think it's our responsibility to not let it disappear," she says.

But their sense of safety at finding a place of safety abroad was short-lived. Beijing has become a global leader in pursuing dissidents abroad through the use of monitoring, intimidation and violence. But what Idris was subjected to was a newer tool of repression: using China's increasing financial influence to force other nations to bend to its demands, including detaining 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 short window of chance to try to stop his extradition to China. She right away reached out to as many Uyghur advocacy organizations as she could find advertised online in the EU and the US and begged for assistance. She was fearless despite China having already shown a readiness to target the family members of other targets.

Zeynure started demonstrating with her children at the diplomatic mission in Istanbul, and sharing updates on online platforms. To her amazement, similar protests soon followed in Morocco demanding Idris's freedom. Moroccan officials were compelled to issue a announcement saying his extradition was a issue for the courts to determine.

In the start of August 2021, Interpol withdrew 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 sent back to China. Zeynure says there was significant diplomatic pressure from Beijing, which made {little sense|