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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 answered a long-awaited phone call from her husband. There had been four agonizing days since their last contact, when he was preparing to board a flight to Casablanca. The silence had been torturous.

But the news her husband Idris delivered was more alarming. He told her that upon arrival in Morocco, he had been arrested and imprisoned. Authorities told him he would be deported to China. "Contact everyone who can rescue me," he pleaded, before the line went silent.

Existence as Uyghurs in Turkey

The wife, 31 years old, and Idris, 37, are part of the mostly Muslim community, which constitutes about 50% of the residents in China's north-western Xinjiang region. Over the last ten years, more than a million Uyghurs are estimated to have been detained in so-called "vocational training camps," where they faced mistreatment for ordinary acts like attending a mosque or using a headscarf.

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 found they were wrong.

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

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure worked as an language instructor, while Idris started as a interpreter and designer, helping to publish Uyghur media and printed works. They had three children and felt able to live as Muslims.

But when one of Idris's close friends, who was employed in a book repository stocking Uyghur books, was detained in the mid-year of 2021, Idris became fearful. News indicated that Beijing was urging Turkey to extradite Uyghurs. Idris felt vulnerable due to his previous detention, which he suspected was linked to his work with activists and supporting Uyghur culture. He decided to escape to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had expired, had to stay behind with the children until her husband could request a visa for the family.

A Costly Error

Leaving Turkey turned out to be a terrible decision. At the airport, immigration officials took Idris aside for questioning. "When he was eventually permitted to board the plane, he told me how happy he was that they had let him go, but it felt like a set-up to me," Zeynure said. Her worst fears were confirmed when he was removed from the plane and detained by Moroccan authorities.

Over the last ten years, China has been utilizing the international police agency Interpol to pursue political refugees and had asked for Idris to be placed on the agency's most-wanted "alert list." Zeynure claims Turkish officials let him board the flight knowing he would be arrested upon landing in Morocco.

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

Parental Pressure

Shortly after learning of her husband's detention, Zeynure received an unexpected phone call from her family in Xinjiang. She had been cut off from her relatives since they visited her in Turkey in 2016 and were imprisoned for several months upon their going back to China.

Her parents had a disturbing message. "They told me, 'We know your husband is not with you. Perhaps we can assist you,'" Zeynure stated. "I knew there must be some police 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 life at stake, the quiet-mannered Zeynure was not going to remain silent. She had been raised 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.

"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 Twitter. But I had to do something to rescue my husband – I had to tell the reality to the world. Everyone knows Uyghurs sent to China will be tortured or die. They pushed me to speak out."

Growing Up in Xinjiang

Zeynure has two distinct types of recollections of her early years in Xinjiang. The first was of blissful days spent in the rural areas with her elders, who were farmers. "I'd play with the animals and poultry. I don't know if I will ever have that type of opportunity again. The relatives around the house and farm. It was too beautiful, like a picture from a story."

The second was as a Muslim Uyghur in Xinjiang, of vacations interrupted by mandatory teachings of "communist songs" and being banned from going to the religious site or observing Ramadan.

China says it is tackling radicalism through 'controlling unauthorized religious activities' and 'vocational education centers', but other nations, 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 prison and told they must have some problem in their brain.

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

She finally decided to leave China after coming back home from university in another part of China to a increasing crackdown on beliefs in 2011. It was then that she was introduced to Idris by one of her classmates. "She was aware we both had taken the choice to go overseas and told us perhaps we could meet and go together."

Zeynure says she was right away reassured by Idris. "I saw he was very truthful and reserved, and couldn't tell lies 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 ready to leave for a different existence in Turkey. They knew it was an Islamic country with many believers and Uyghurs already living there, with a comparable tongue and shared background. "It was like Uyghurs' second home," says Zeynure. As a educator and creative, they could also help the community in exile. "There are many children now in China being raised without Uyghur culture or language so we think it's our duty to not let it die out," she says.

But their relief at locating a secure location overseas was short-lived. Beijing has become a global leader in targeting critics abroad through the use of electronic surveillance, intimidation and physical assault. But what Idris was subjected to was a more recent method of control: using China's increasing financial influence to force other nations to yield to its demands, including detaining and extraditing Uyghurs it wants to suppress.

Fighting for Freedom

After the call from Idris, and learning he had an Interpol red notice hanging over him, Zeynure knew she only had a short window of opportunity to try to prevent his extradition to China. She right away reached out to as many Uyghur support groups as she could find advertised online in the EU and the US and pleaded for help. She was fearless despite China having already shown a readiness to target the relatives of other targets.

Zeynure started protesting with her children at the Moroccan embassy in Istanbul, and posting information on social media. To her amazement, similar protests soon occurred in Morocco calling for Idris's freedom. Moroccan officials were compelled to put out a statement saying his deportation was a matter for the courts 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 extradited to China. Zeynure says there was significant political influence from Beijing, which made {little sense|