🔗 Share this article

In the summer of 2021, Zeynure Hasan was at her home in Istanbul when she answered a long-awaited phone call from her husband. There had been four agonizing days since their last communication, when he was getting ready to board a flight to Casablanca. The silence had been difficult.

But the update her husband Idris revealed was more alarming. He explained that upon landing in Morocco, he had been detained and imprisoned. Authorities told him he would be deported to China. "Contact everyone who can help me," he urged, before the line went dead.

Existence as Uyghurs in Exile

The wife, in her early thirties, and Idris, in his late thirties, are members of the mostly Muslim ethnic group, which makes up about 50% of the residents in China's western Xinjiang province. Over the last ten years, over a million Uyghurs are reported to have been detained in so-called "re-education camps," where they faced abuse for ordinary acts like attending a place of worship or using a hijab.

The pair had been among many of Uyghurs who fled to Turkey during the previous decade. They hoped they would find security in their new home, but quickly realized they were wrong.

"Authorities informed me that the Chinese government warned to close all its factories in the nation if Morocco released him," she said.

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure became an English teacher, while Idris began as a interpreter and artist, helping to produce Uyghur news and publications. They had three children and enjoyed free to practice as followers of Islam.

But when one of Idris's best friends, who worked in a book repository stocking Uyghur books, was detained in the mid-year of 2021, Idris panicked. News indicated that Beijing was pressuring Turkey to extradite Uyghurs. Idris felt at risk due to his previous arrest, which he suspected was connected to his work with activists and supporting Uyghur culture. He chose to flee to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had expired, had to stay behind with the children until her husband could apply for a visa for the whole family.

A Costly Error

Departing Turkey turned out to be a terrible decision. At the Istanbul airport, border control officials pulled him aside for questioning. "When 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 set-up to me," she recalled. Her deepest concerns were confirmed when he was removed from the plane and arrested by border officials.

Over the past decade, China has been utilizing the international police agency Interpol to target dissidents and had requested for Idris to be added on the agency's high-priority "alert list." Zeynure says Turkish officials let him take the flight aware he would be apprehended upon landing in Morocco.

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

Family Interference

Soon after learning of her husband's detention, Zeynure received an surprising phone call from her parents in Xinjiang. She had been cut off 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 chilling 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 acted like I didn't know anything. But they persisted and told me not to do anything to help my husband. 'Avoid doing anything except caring for your children,' they told me. 'Don't say 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 witnessing women having their head coverings ripped off in public by the authorities 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 Twitter. But I had to do something to save my husband – I had to tell the truth to the international community. Everyone knows Uyghurs deported to China will be abused or die. They forced me to speak out."

Growing Up in Xinjiang

Zeynure has different types of memories of her early years in Xinjiang. The first was of blissful days spent in the rural areas with her elders, who were farmers. "I'd play with the animals and poultry. I don't know if I will ever have that kind of opportunity again. The family around the house and farm. It was too beautiful, 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 practicing Ramadan.

China says it is addressing extremism through 'managing unauthorized religious activities' and 'vocational education facilities', but other countries, including the US, say its actions amount to genocide. Zeynure says she never felt able to follow her religious beliefs in Xinjiang. "People who went on religious journey to Mecca in Saudi Arabia were arrested and sent to jail and told they must have some problem in their mind.

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

She eventually decided to depart China after returning home from university in Eastern China to a increasing repression on beliefs in 2011. It was then that she was introduced to Idris by one of her classmates. "She knew we both had made the decision to go abroad and told us maybe 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 tell lies or do anything bad. There were some Uyghur men at university who wanted to wed me, but Idris was different."

A New Life in Turkey

Within 60 days they were wed and prepared to move for a different existence in Turkey. They knew it was an Muslim-majority country with many believers and Uyghurs already residing there, with a similar tongue and shared ethnicity. "It was like Uyghurs' second home," says Zeynure. As a educator and designer, they could also help the community in exile. "There are many children now in China being raised without Uyghur traditions or dialect so we think it's our duty to not let it disappear," she says.

But their sense of safety at locating a secure location overseas was short-lived. Beijing has become a global leader in targeting dissidents living in exile through the use of electronic surveillance, intimidation and violence. But what Idris was subjected to was a newer tool of repression: using China's increasing financial influence to pressure other nations to yield to its will, including arresting and deporting Uyghurs it wants to silence.

Campaigning for Freedom

After the phone 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 prevent his deportation to China. She immediately reached out to as many Uyghur support groups as she could find listed on the internet in the EU and the US and begged for help. 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 sharing updates on online platforms. To her surprise, copycat protests soon occurred in Morocco calling for Idris's freedom. Moroccan officials were compelled to put out a announcement saying his deportation 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 deciding he should still be extradited to China. Zeynure says there was significant political influence from Beijing, which made {little sense|