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

But the news her husband Idris revealed was more alarming. He told her that upon arrival in Morocco, he had been detained and imprisoned. Authorities stated he would be sent back to China. "Call anyone who can help me," he urged, before the line went dead.

Life as Uyghurs in Turkey

Zeynure, in her early thirties, and Idris, 37, are part of the mostly Muslim ethnic group, which makes up about half of the population in China's north-western Xinjiang province. Over the last ten years, more than a 1,000,000 Uyghurs are believed to have been imprisoned in so-called "re-education camps," where they faced abuse for ordinary acts 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 previous decade. They hoped they would find security in exile, but soon discovered they were mistaken.

"Authorities informed me that the Chinese government threatened to shut down all its factories in the nation if Morocco released him," she explained.

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure became an English teacher, while Idris started as a interpreter and artist, helping to produce Uyghur media and printed works. They had three children and felt able to practice as Muslims.

But when one of Idris's close friends, who worked in a book repository containing Uyghur books, was detained in the summer of 2021, Idris panicked. Reports indicated that Beijing was pressuring Turkey to extradite Uyghurs. Idris felt vulnerable due to his previous arrest, which he believed was connected to his work with activists and supporting Uyghur culture. He chose to flee 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 Costly Mistake

Departing Turkey turned out to be a disastrous decision. At the Istanbul airport, immigration officials took Idris aside for interrogation. "After 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 set-up to me," she said. Her worst fears were realized when he was taken off the plane and detained by border officials.

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

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

Parental Pressure

Shortly after hearing of her husband's arrest, Zeynure received 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 imprisoned for a few months upon their going back to China.

Her parents had a chilling message. "They said, 'We know your husband is not with you. Perhaps we can help you,'" Zeynure stated. "I realized there must be some authorities there with them and just acted like I didn't know anything. But they insisted 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 negative about China.'"

But with her husband's life at risk, the softly spoken Zeynure was not going to remain silent. She had been raised seeing women having their hijabs ripped off 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 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 reality to the international community. Everyone knows Uyghurs deported to China will be tortured or killed. They pushed me to speak out."

Childhood in Xinjiang

Zeynure has two distinct types of memories of her childhood in Xinjiang. The first was of blissful days spent in the rural areas with her grandparents, who were agricultural workers. "I used to play with the animals and chickens. I don't know if I will ever have that type of opportunity 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 cut short by forced teachings of "communist songs" and being prohibited from going to the religious site or practicing Ramadan.

China says it is addressing radicalism through 'controlling illegal religious activities' and 'training facilities', but other nations, including the US, say its actions constitute genocide. Zeynure says she never felt able to follow her religious beliefs in Xinjiang. "People who went on religious journey to Mecca in Saudi Arabia were arrested and transferred to prison and told they must have some problem in their mind.

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

She eventually decided to leave 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 made the decision to go overseas and told us maybe we could meet and go as a group."

Zeynure says she was immediately comforted by Idris. "I saw he was very truthful and shy, 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 60 days they were wed and ready to move for a new life in Turkey. They knew it was an Muslim-majority country with many Muslims and Uyghurs already residing there, with a comparable language and common background. "It felt like Uyghurs' alternative homeland," says Zeynure. As a educator and creative, they could also support the community in exile. "There are many kids now in China growing up without Uyghur traditions or language so we think it's our responsibility to not let it die out," she says.

But their relief at locating a place of safety abroad was short-lived. Beijing has become a prominent force in pursuing dissidents abroad through the use of monitoring, intimidation and violence. But what Idris was subjected to was a more recent method of repression: using China's growing financial influence to force other nations to bend to its demands, including arresting and extraditing Uyghurs it wants to silence.

Campaigning for Release

After the call from Idris, and learning he had an Interpol alert hanging over him, Zeynure knew she only had a short window of chance to try to prevent his deportation to China. She immediately contacted 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 brave despite China having already shown a willingness to target the family members of other individuals.

Zeynure started demonstrating with her children at the diplomatic mission in Istanbul, and posting information on social media. To her amazement, similar protests soon followed in Morocco demanding Idris's release. Moroccan officials were compelled to issue a statement saying his deportation was a issue for the judicial system to determine.

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