🔗 Share this article

In July 2021, a Uyghur woman named Zeynure was at her home in Istanbul when she got a long-awaited phone call from her husband. There had been four painful days since their last contact, when he was preparing to board a flight to Morocco. The lack of communication had been unbearable.

But the information her husband Idris shared was even worse. He informed her that upon arrival in Morocco, he had been detained and jailed. Authorities told him he would be extradited to China. "Contact anyone who can rescue me," he urged, before the line went silent.

Life as Uyghurs in Turkey

The wife, 31 years old, and Idris, in his late thirties, are members of the Uyghur community, which constitutes about 50% of the population in China's western Xinjiang province. Over the last ten years, more than a million Uyghurs are believed to have been imprisoned in so-called "vocational training camps," where they faced mistreatment for commonplace actions like going to a place of worship or using a headscarf.

The couple had joined thousands of Uyghurs who escaped to Turkey during the previous decade. They hoped they would find refuge in their new home, but quickly discovered they were mistaken.

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

After settling in Istanbul, Zeynure worked as an language instructor, while Idris began as a translator and artist, assisting to publish Uyghur news and printed works. They had a family of three kids and enjoyed able to practice as Muslims.

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 panicked. Reports indicated that Beijing was urging Turkey to deport Uyghurs. Idris felt vulnerable due to his prior arrest, which he believed was linked to his work with activists and supporting Uyghur heritage. He decided to escape to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had expired, had to remain with the children until her husband could request a visa for the family.

A Terrible Mistake

Departing Turkey proved to be a disastrous decision. At the airport, immigration officials pulled him aside for interrogation. "When he was finally allowed to board the plane, he told me how happy he was that they had released him, but it felt like a set-up 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 using the global police agency Interpol to pursue dissidents and had requested for Idris to be added on the agency's high-priority "red notice list." Zeynure claims Turkish officials let him take the flight knowing he would be apprehended upon arrival in Morocco.

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

Family Interference

Soon after hearing of her husband's arrest, Zeynure got an unexpected phone call from her parents in Xinjiang. She had been separated from her relatives since they came to see her in Turkey in 2016 and were imprisoned for several 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 police 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. '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 been raised seeing women having their hijabs ripped off in public by the authorities and had been determined 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 caring for my family; I didn't even have Facebook or these platforms. But I had to do something to save my husband – I had to tell the truth to the world. 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 recollections of her childhood in Xinjiang. The first was of blissful days spent in the countryside with her grandparents, who were farmers. "I used to play with the sheep and chickens. I don't know if I will ever have that kind of opportunity again. The relatives around the home and land. It was too wonderful, like a scene from a book."

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

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

"They wanted Uyghur people to abandon their faith and heritage. They said 'you should believe in us, we provided you jobs and this good life here'," says Zeynure.

She finally decided to leave China after returning home from college in Eastern China to a increasing crackdown on religious freedoms in 2011. It was then that she was connected 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 get together and go as a group."

Zeynure says she was right away reassured by Idris. "I saw he was very honest and reserved, and couldn't tell lies 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 ready to leave 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 shared background. "It was like Uyghurs' second home," says Zeynure. As a educator and creative, they could also help the community in diaspora. "There are many kids now in China being raised without Uyghur traditions or dialect so we think it's our responsibility to not let it disappear," she says.

But their relief at locating a secure location abroad was short-lived. Beijing has become a prominent force in pursuing critics living in exile through the use of monitoring, intimidation and physical assault. But what Idris was subjected to was a more recent tool of control: using China's growing economic leverage to force other countries to yield to its demands, including detaining and deporting 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 limited time of chance to try to stop his deportation to China. She immediately contacted as many Uyghur advocacy organizations as she could find listed on the internet in Europe and the US and begged for help. She was fearless despite China having already shown a willingness to go after the relatives of other targets.

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

In the start of August 2021, Interpol cancelled Idris's red notice after being pressed to review his case by advocacy organizations. But that did not prevent a Moroccan court later deciding he should still be extradited to China. Zeynure says there was significant political influence from Beijing, which made {little sense|