🔗 Share this article

In the summer of 2021, a Uyghur woman named Zeynure was at her home in Istanbul when she answered 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 Morocco. The silence had been difficult.

But the news her husband Idris revealed was more alarming. He informed her that upon arrival in Morocco, he had been detained and imprisoned. Authorities informed him he would be deported to China. "Call anyone who can rescue me," he said, before the line went silent.

Existence as Uyghurs in Exile

Zeynure, in her early thirties, and Idris, in his late thirties, are part of the mostly Muslim community, which constitutes about half of the residents in China's north-western Xinjiang region. Over the last ten years, over a million Uyghurs are reported to have been imprisoned in so-called "vocational training camps," where they faced mistreatment for commonplace actions like going to a mosque or wearing a headscarf.

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

"I was told that the Chinese government threatened to shut down all its industrial plants in the nation if Morocco released him," she said.

After settling in Istanbul, Zeynure worked as an English teacher, while Idris began as a interpreter and designer, assisting to produce Uyghur media and printed works. They had three children and enjoyed free to practice as followers of Islam.

But when one of Idris's close friends, who was employed in a library containing Uyghur books, was detained in the summer of 2021, Idris became fearful. Reports indicated that Beijing was urging Turkey to deport Uyghurs. Idris felt at risk due to his previous detention, which he suspected was linked to his work with advocates 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 visa for the whole family.

A Costly Mistake

Leaving Turkey proved to be a terrible decision. At the airport, immigration officials pulled him aside for questioning. "After 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 trap to me," she recalled. Her worst fears were confirmed when he was taken off the plane and detained by border officials.

Over the last ten years, China has been using the international police agency Interpol to pursue dissidents and had requested for Idris to be placed on the agency's high-priority "alert list." Zeynure says Turkish officials allowed him board the flight aware he would be apprehended upon landing in Morocco.

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

Family Pressure

Shortly after learning of her husband's arrest, Zeynure received an unexpected 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. Maybe we can assist you,'" Zeynure explained. "I knew there must be some police there with them and just pretended 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 risk, the softly spoken Zeynure was not going to remain silent. She had grown up seeing women having their head coverings forcibly removed in open by the authorities and had been determined to live in a country with freedom of belief.

"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 rescue my husband – I had to reveal the truth to the international community. Everyone knows Uyghurs deported to China will be tortured or die. They pushed me to speak out."

Childhood in Xinjiang

Zeynure has different types of recollections of her early years in Xinjiang. The first was of blissful days spent in the countryside with her grandparents, who were agricultural workers. "I used to play with the sheep 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 scene from a book."

The second was as a Muslim Uyghur in Xinjiang, of school holidays cut short by mandatory teachings of "political anthems" and being banned from attending the religious site or observing Ramadan.

China claims it is addressing extremism through 'managing 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 religious journey to Mecca abroad were arrested and sent to jail and told they must have some issue in their brain.

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

She finally decided to leave China after returning home from university in another part of China to a growing crackdown on beliefs in 2011. It was then that she was introduced to Idris by one of her school friends. "She was aware we both had taken the choice to go overseas and told us maybe we could get together and go together."

Zeynure says she was immediately reassured by Idris. "I realized he was very truthful and reserved, and couldn't tell lies or do anything wrong. There were some Uyghur men at university who wanted to wed me, but Idris was unique."

Fresh Start in Turkey

Within two months they were married and ready to move for a different existence in Turkey. They knew it was an Muslim-majority country with many Muslims and Uyghurs already living there, with a comparable tongue and common background. "It felt like Uyghurs' alternative homeland," says Zeynure. As a teacher and designer, they could also help the community in exile. "We have many children 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 sense of safety at finding a place of safety overseas was temporary. Beijing has become a global leader in pursuing dissidents abroad through the use of electronic surveillance, intimidation and physical assault. But what Idris was faced was a more recent method of control: using China's increasing economic leverage to pressure other countries to bend to its demands, including arresting and deporting Uyghurs it wants to suppress.

Fighting for Release

After the call from Idris, and discovering he had an Interpol alert against him, Zeynure knew she only had a short window of opportunity to try to prevent his deportation to China. She immediately contacted as many Uyghur support groups as she could find advertised online in Europe and the US and begged for assistance. She was brave despite China having already shown a willingness to target the family members of other individuals.

Zeynure started demonstrating with her children at the Moroccan embassy in Istanbul, and posting information on social media. To her amazement, copycat protests soon occurred in Morocco calling for Idris's release. Moroccan officials were compelled to issue a statement saying his extradition was a issue for the judicial system to decide.

In early August 2021, Interpol cancelled Idris's alert after being urged to review his case by human rights groups. But that did not stop a Moroccan court later ruling he should still be sent back to China. Zeynure says there was huge diplomatic pressure from Beijing, which made {little sense|