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In the summer of 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 preparing to board a flight to Morocco. The lack of communication had been unbearable.

But the information her husband Idris revealed was even worse. He explained that upon arrival in Morocco, he had been arrested and imprisoned. Authorities informed him he would be sent back to China. "Contact everyone who can assist me," he pleaded, before the line went silent.

Life as Ethnic Minority in Turkey

The wife, in her early thirties, and Idris, 37, are members of the mostly Muslim ethnic group, which makes up about 50% of the population in China's western Xinjiang region. Over the last ten years, over a million Uyghurs are estimated to have been detained in alleged "vocational training camps," where they faced mistreatment for ordinary acts like attending a mosque or using a hijab.

The couple had joined many of Uyghurs who escaped to Turkey during the 2010s. They hoped they would find security in their new home, but quickly realized they were mistaken.

"I was told that the Chinese government warned to close all its factories in the nation if Morocco freed him," Zeynure stated.

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

But when one of Idris's close friends, who worked in a library stocking Uyghur books, was detained in the mid-year of 2021, Idris became fearful. News indicated that Beijing was pressuring Turkey to deport Uyghurs. Idris felt at risk due to his previous arrest, which he suspected was connected to his work with activists and promoting Uyghur culture. He chose to flee to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had lapsed, had to stay behind with the children until her husband could request a travel document for the whole family.

A Costly Error

Leaving Turkey proved to be a disastrous mistake. At the airport, border control 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 released him, but it felt like a trap to me," Zeynure said. Her deepest concerns were realized when he was taken off the plane and arrested by border officials.

Over the past decade, China has been utilizing the global police agency Interpol to pursue political refugees and had asked for Idris to be added on the agency's most-wanted "red notice list." Zeynure says Turkish officials let him take the flight aware he would be apprehended upon arrival in Morocco.

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

Family Interference

Soon after learning of her husband's arrest, Zeynure got an surprising phone call from her family in Xinjiang. She had been separated from her family since they visited 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. 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. '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 softly spoken Zeynure was not going to remain silent. She had been raised seeing women having their head coverings ripped off in open by the authorities 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 social media or Twitter. But I had to do something to save my husband – I had to tell the reality to the world. Everyone knows Uyghurs sent to China will be tortured or killed. They pushed me to raise my voice."

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 farmers. "I'd play with the sheep and chickens. I don't know if I will ever have that kind of opportunity again. The family around the house and land. It was too wonderful, like a picture from a book."

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

China claims it is addressing extremism through 'managing unauthorized religious activities' and 'vocational education facilities', but other nations, including the US, say its actions constitute ethnic cleansing. Zeynure says she never felt free to practice her faith in Xinjiang. "People who went on religious journey to Mecca abroad were arrested and sent to jail 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 trust in us, we gave you employment and this good life here'," says Zeynure.

She finally decided to depart China after coming back home from college in Eastern China to a growing crackdown on beliefs 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 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 wed me, but Idris was different."

A New Life in Turkey

Within two months they were wed and ready to move for a different existence in Turkey. They knew it was an Islamic country with many believers and Uyghurs already living there, with a similar language and shared background. "It was like Uyghurs' alternative homeland," says Zeynure. As a teacher and creative, they could also help the Uyghur population in diaspora. "There are 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 locating a secure location abroad was temporary. Beijing has become a global leader in pursuing dissidents abroad through the use of electronic surveillance, threats and violence. But what Idris was faced was a newer method of control: using China's increasing financial influence to force other nations to bend to its demands, including detaining and extraditing Uyghurs it wants to suppress.

Campaigning for Freedom

After the call from Idris, and discovering he had an Interpol red notice hanging over him, Zeynure knew she only had a short window of chance to try to stop 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 demonstrated a readiness to go after the family members of other individuals.

Zeynure started protesting with her children at the Moroccan embassy in Istanbul, and posting updates on social media. To her surprise, copycat protests soon followed in Morocco calling for Idris's release. Moroccan officials were compelled to put out a announcement saying his deportation was a issue for the courts to determine.

In early August 2021, Interpol cancelled Idris's alert 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 diplomatic pressure from Beijing, which made {little sense|