🔗 Share this article

In the summer of 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 communication, when he was getting ready to board a flight to Casablanca. The lack of communication had been unbearable.

But the news her husband Idris revealed was even worse. He explained that upon landing in Morocco, he had been taken into custody and jailed. Authorities informed him he would be deported to China. "Contact anyone who can help me," he pleaded, before the line went silent.

Existence as Ethnic Minority in Exile

The wife, 31 years old, and Idris, 37, are members of the Uyghur ethnic group, which makes up about half 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 imprisoned in alleged "re-education camps," where they faced mistreatment for ordinary actions like attending a place of worship or wearing a hijab.

The couple had joined many of Uyghurs who escaped to Turkey during the previous decade. They thought they would find safety in their new home, but soon realized they were wrong.

"I was told that the Beijing officials threatened to close all its industrial plants in the nation if Morocco freed him," Zeynure said.

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure worked as an language instructor, while Idris started as a translator and artist, assisting to produce Uyghur news and printed works. They had three children and felt free to live as Muslims.

But when one of Idris's close friends, who worked in a library containing Uyghur books, was detained in the summer of 2021, Idris panicked. Reports indicated that Beijing was pressuring Turkey to extradite Uyghurs. Idris felt at risk due to his prior detention, which he suspected was linked to his work with advocates and promoting Uyghur heritage. He chose to flee to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had expired, had to stay behind with the children until her husband could request a travel document for the whole family.

A Costly Error

Departing Turkey turned out to be a disastrous mistake. At the Istanbul airport, border control officials took Idris aside for interrogation. "After he was eventually allowed to get on the plane, he told me how happy he was that they had released him, but it felt like a trap to me," she said. Her deepest concerns were confirmed when he was taken off the plane and arrested 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 added on the agency's high-priority "alert list." Zeynure says Turkish officials allowed him board the flight knowing he would be apprehended upon arrival in Morocco.

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

Parental Pressure

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

Her parents had a chilling warning. "They told me, 'We know your husband is not with you. Maybe we can assist 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. '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 resolved to live in a country with freedom of belief.

"Before my husband was arrested in Morocco, I didn't do anything. I was just looking after my family; I didn't even have Facebook or Twitter. But I had to do something to save my husband – I had to reveal the truth to the world. Everyone knows Uyghurs deported to China will be tortured or die. They pushed me to raise my voice."

Childhood in Xinjiang

Zeynure has two distinct types of recollections of her early years 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 type of chance again. The family around the house and farm. It was too beautiful, like a scene from a book."

The second was as a Muslim Uyghur in Xinjiang, of vacations cut short by forced teachings of "political anthems" and being banned from going to the mosque or observing Ramadan.

China says it is addressing extremism through 'managing illegal religious activities' and 'training centers', but other countries, including the US, say its actions constitute ethnic cleansing. Zeynure says she never felt able to practice her religious beliefs in Xinjiang. "Individuals who went on pilgrimage to Mecca abroad were detained and sent to jail and told they must have some issue in their mind.

"They aimed for Uyghur people to abandon their faith and heritage. They said 'you should trust in us, we provided you jobs and this beautiful living here'," says Zeynure.

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

Zeynure says she was immediately 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 wed and prepared to move for a new life in Turkey. They knew it was an Islamic country with many believers and Uyghurs already living there, with a similar tongue and common background. "It felt like Uyghurs' alternative homeland," says Zeynure. As a educator and designer, they could also help the community in exile. "There are many kids now in China being raised without Uyghur traditions or language so we think it's our responsibility to not let it die out," she says.

But their relief at locating a secure location overseas was temporary. Beijing has become a prominent force in targeting critics abroad through the use of monitoring, threats and violence. But what Idris was subjected to was a newer tool of control: using China's growing economic leverage to force other countries to bend to its will, including arresting and deporting Uyghurs it wants to silence.

Fighting for Release

After the call from Idris, and learning he had an Interpol red notice against him, Zeynure knew she only had a short window of chance to try to stop his extradition to China. She right away reached out to as many Uyghur advocacy organizations as she could find listed on the internet in the EU and the US and begged for assistance. She was fearless despite China having already shown a readiness to target the family members 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 calling for Idris's freedom. Moroccan officials were compelled to issue a announcement saying his extradition was a matter for the judicial system to determine.

In early August 2021, Interpol withdrew Idris's red notice after being urged to reexamine his case by human rights groups. But that did not prevent a Moroccan court later ruling he should still be sent back to China. Zeynure says there was significant political influence from Beijing, which made {little sense|