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In July 2021, a Uyghur woman named Zeynure was at her home in Istanbul when she received a long-awaited phone call from her husband. There had been four painful days since their last communication, when he was getting ready to take a flight to Casablanca. The silence had been difficult.

But the news her husband Idris revealed was even worse. He told her that upon arrival in Morocco, he had been detained and imprisoned. Authorities informed him he would be extradited to China. "Contact anyone who can assist me," he said, before the line went dead.

Existence as Uyghurs in Exile

Zeynure, in her early thirties, and Idris, 37, are members of the mostly Muslim ethnic group, which makes up about half of the population in China's western Xinjiang province. Over the past decade, over a million Uyghurs are believed to have been imprisoned in so-called "vocational training camps," where they faced torture for commonplace acts like attending a place of worship or using a headscarf.

The pair had been among many of Uyghurs who fled to Turkey during the previous decade. They thought they would find safety in exile, but soon discovered they were mistaken.

"Authorities informed me that the Beijing officials threatened to close all its factories in the nation if Morocco freed him," she said.

After settling in Istanbul, Zeynure became an language instructor, while Idris started as a translator and artist, assisting to produce Uyghur media and publications. They had a family of three kids and enjoyed able to live as followers of Islam.

But when one of Idris's close friends, who worked in a library containing Uyghur books, was arrested in the mid-year of 2021, Idris became fearful. News indicated that Beijing was urging Turkey to deport Uyghurs. Idris felt at risk due to his prior arrest, which he suspected was linked to his work with activists and supporting Uyghur culture. He chose to escape to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had lapsed, had to remain with the children until her husband could apply for a travel document for the whole family.

A Terrible Error

Leaving Turkey turned out to be a disastrous decision. At the Istanbul airport, immigration officials pulled him aside for interrogation. "When he was eventually permitted to board 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 deepest concerns were confirmed when he was removed from the plane and detained by border officials.

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

What happened next would convince her to do what many Uyghurs dread most: defy China, despite the risks.

Parental Interference

Soon after learning 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 visited her in Turkey in 2016 and were jailed for several months upon their return to China.

Her parents had a chilling message. "They said, 'We know your husband is not with you. Maybe we can help you,'" she explained. "I knew there must be some authorities there with them and just pretended 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 bad about China.'"

But with her husband's life at risk, the quiet-mannered Zeynure was not going to remain silent. She had been raised seeing women having their head coverings 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 save my husband – I had to reveal the truth to the international community. Everyone knows Uyghurs deported to China will be abused or die. They forced me to speak out."

Growing Up in Xinjiang

Zeynure has two distinct types of memories of her early years in Xinjiang. The first was of blissful days spent in the countryside 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 type of chance again. The relatives around the home and land. It was too wonderful, like a picture from a story."

The second was as a Muslim Uyghur in Xinjiang, of school holidays interrupted by mandatory teachings of "communist songs" and being prohibited from going to the mosque or practicing Ramadan.

China says it is addressing radicalism through 'controlling illegal religious activities' and 'training facilities', but other countries, including the US, say its actions amount to ethnic cleansing. Zeynure says she never felt able to practice her faith in Xinjiang. "People who went on pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia were arrested and transferred to jail and told they must have some issue 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 coming back 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 school friends. "She knew we both had made the decision to go abroad and told us maybe we could meet and go together."

Zeynure says she was immediately comforted by Idris. "I realized he was very honest and shy, and couldn't be dishonest or do anything wrong. There were some Uyghur men at university who wanted to wed me, but Idris was unique."

Fresh Start in Turkey

Within 60 days they were wed and prepared to move for a different existence in Turkey. They knew it was an Muslim-majority country with many believers and Uyghurs already living there, with a comparable language and shared background. "It felt like Uyghurs' alternative homeland," says Zeynure. As a educator and creative, they could also help the Uyghur population in diaspora. "We have many children now in China growing up without Uyghur traditions or language so we think it's our responsibility to not let it disappear," she says.

But their sense of safety at finding a secure location abroad was short-lived. Beijing has become a prominent force in targeting dissidents living in exile through the use of monitoring, threats and physical assault. But what Idris was subjected to was a more recent tool of repression: using China's increasing economic leverage to force other nations to bend to its demands, including arresting and deporting Uyghurs it wants to silence.

Campaigning for Freedom

After the phone call from Idris, and learning he had an Interpol alert hanging over him, Zeynure knew she only had a limited time of chance to try to stop his deportation to China. She right away contacted as many Uyghur advocacy organizations as she could find listed on the internet in the EU and the US and pleaded for assistance. She was brave despite China having already demonstrated a willingness to target the family members of other targets.

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

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 huge diplomatic pressure from Beijing, which made {little sense|