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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 received a desperately anticipated phone call from her husband. It had been four stressful days since their last contact, when he was preparing to board a flight to Casablanca. The silence had been torturous.

But the information her husband Idris shared was more devastating. He informed her that upon landing in Morocco, he had been arrested and imprisoned. Authorities stated he would be deported to China. "Call anyone who can assist me," he said, before the line went dead.

Existence as Ethnic Minority in Exile

Zeynure, in her early thirties, and Idris, 37, are members of the Uyghur ethnic group, which makes up about 50% of the residents in China's western Xinjiang province. Over the last ten years, over a 1,000,000 Uyghurs are reported to have been imprisoned in alleged "re-education camps," where they faced abuse for ordinary actions like going to a mosque or using a hijab.

The pair had joined thousands of Uyghurs who fled to Turkey during the 2010s. They believed they would find safety in their new home, but quickly discovered they were wrong.

"I was told that the Beijing officials warned to close all its factories in the country if Morocco freed him," she explained.

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

But when one of Idris's best friends, who was employed in a library stocking Uyghur books, was detained in the summer of 2021, Idris became fearful. Reports indicated that Beijing was pressuring Turkey to extradite Uyghurs. Idris felt at risk due to his previous arrest, which he believed was linked to his work with activists and supporting Uyghur heritage. He chose to flee to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had lapsed, had to stay behind with the children until her husband could apply for a travel document for the whole family.

A Costly Error

Leaving Turkey proved to be a terrible decision. At the airport, immigration officials took Idris aside for interrogation. "When he was finally permitted to get on the plane, he told me how relieved he was that they had released him, but it felt like a set-up to me," she recalled. Her worst fears were realized when he was taken off the plane and arrested by border officials.

Over the last ten years, China has been utilizing the global police agency Interpol to target political refugees and had asked for Idris to be placed on the agency's high-priority "alert list." Zeynure says Turkish officials allowed him take the flight aware he would be arrested upon arrival in Morocco.

What happened next would lead her to do what many Uyghurs fear most: defy China, regardless of the risks.

Family Pressure

Shortly after learning of her husband's arrest, Zeynure received an surprising phone call from her parents in Xinjiang. She had been separated from her relatives since they visited her in Turkey in 2016 and were imprisoned for a few months upon their going back to China.

Her parents had a disturbing warning. "They told me, 'We know your husband is not with you. Perhaps we can help you,'" Zeynure stated. "I realized there must be some police 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 feeding your children,' they told me. 'Avoid saying anything bad about China.'"

But with her husband's safety at risk, the softly spoken Zeynure was not going to remain silent. She had grown up seeing women having their hijabs 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 caring for 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 tortured or killed. They forced me to raise my voice."

Childhood in Xinjiang

Zeynure has different types of recollections of her childhood in Xinjiang. The first was of happy days spent in the countryside with her elders, who were agricultural workers. "I'd play with the animals and chickens. I don't know if I will ever have that type of chance again. The family around the home and land. It was too wonderful, like a picture from a story."

The second was as a religious minority in Xinjiang, of school holidays cut short by forced teachings of "political anthems" and being prohibited from going to the religious site or observing Ramadan.

China claims it is addressing radicalism through 'managing illegal religious activities' and 'vocational education facilities', but other nations, including the US, say its actions constitute genocide. Zeynure says she never felt free to practice her religious beliefs in Xinjiang. "Individuals who went on religious journey to Mecca in Saudi Arabia were detained and sent to jail and told they must have some issue in their brain.

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

She eventually decided to depart China after coming back home from college in Eastern China to a growing crackdown on religious freedoms in 2011. It was then that she was introduced to Idris by one of her school friends. "She was aware we both had made the decision to go overseas and told us perhaps we could get together and go together."

Zeynure says she was right away comforted by Idris. "I realized he was very honest and reserved, and couldn't be dishonest or do anything wrong. 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 prepared 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 comparable tongue and shared ethnicity. "It felt like Uyghurs' second home," says Zeynure. As a educator and designer, they could also support the Uyghur population 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 disappear," she says.

But their sense of safety at finding a secure location abroad was short-lived. Beijing has become a global leader in targeting critics living in exile through the use of electronic surveillance, intimidation and violence. But what Idris was faced was a more recent method of control: using China's increasing economic leverage to force other nations to bend to its demands, including detaining and deporting Uyghurs it wants to suppress.

Campaigning for Release

After the call from Idris, and discovering he had an Interpol red notice against him, Zeynure knew she only had a limited time of opportunity to try to prevent his extradition to China. She right away reached out to as many Uyghur advocacy organizations as she could find listed on the internet in Europe and the US and pleaded for help. She was fearless despite China having already shown a readiness to go after the relatives of other individuals.

Zeynure started demonstrating with her children at the diplomatic mission in Istanbul, and posting updates on social media. To her surprise, copycat protests soon occurred in Morocco demanding Idris's freedom. Moroccan officials were forced to put out a announcement saying his extradition was a issue for the courts to decide.

In the start of August 2021, Interpol cancelled Idris's alert after being pressed 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 significant political influence from Beijing, which made {little sense|