🔗 Share this article

In the summer of 2021, a Uyghur woman named Zeynure was at her home in Turkey's largest city when she received a long-awaited phone call from her husband. It had been four painful days since their last contact, when he was getting ready to take a flight to Morocco. The silence had been unbearable.

But the update her husband Idris shared was more devastating. He told her that upon arrival in Morocco, he had been arrested and imprisoned. Authorities informed him he would be sent back to China. "Contact anyone who can rescue me," he pleaded, before the line went silent.

Existence as Uyghurs in Turkey

The wife, in her early thirties, and Idris, 37, are part of the Uyghur ethnic group, which makes up about half of the population in China's western Xinjiang province. Over the last ten years, over a 1,000,000 Uyghurs are believed to have been imprisoned in alleged "vocational training camps," where they faced mistreatment for commonplace acts like going to a place of worship or using a headscarf.

The pair had been among many of Uyghurs who escaped to Turkey during the 2010s. They thought they would find security in exile, but quickly found they were mistaken.

"Authorities informed me that the Chinese government warned to close all its industrial plants in the country if Morocco released him," Zeynure said.

After settling in Istanbul, Zeynure worked as an language instructor, while Idris started as a interpreter and artist, helping to produce Uyghur news and printed works. They had three children and enjoyed able to practice as Muslims.

But when one of Idris's close friends, who worked in a book repository stocking Uyghur books, was arrested in the summer of 2021, Idris became fearful. Reports indicated that Beijing was urging Turkey to deport Uyghurs. Idris felt vulnerable due to his prior detention, which he believed was connected 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 request a travel document for the whole family.

A Terrible Mistake

Departing Turkey turned out to be a terrible decision. At the Istanbul airport, immigration officials pulled him aside for questioning. "When he was eventually permitted to get on the plane, he told me how relieved he was that they had let him go, but it felt like a trap to me," Zeynure said. 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 utilizing the global police agency Interpol to target political refugees and had asked for Idris to be added on the agency's most-wanted "red notice list." Zeynure claims Turkish officials let him board the flight aware he would be arrested upon arrival in Morocco.

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

Family Pressure

Soon after learning of her husband's detention, Zeynure got an surprising phone call from her family in Xinjiang. She had been separated from her relatives since they came to see her in Turkey in 2016 and were jailed for a few months upon their going back to China.

Her parents had a chilling message. "They told me, 'We know your husband is not with you. Perhaps we can help 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. 'Avoid doing anything except caring for 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 stay quiet. She had been raised seeing women having their head coverings ripped off 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 looking after my family; I didn't even have Facebook or these platforms. But I had to do something to rescue my husband – I had to tell the reality to the world. Everyone knows Uyghurs deported to China will be tortured or killed. 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 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 kind of opportunity again. The relatives around the house and land. It was too beautiful, like a picture from a book."

The second was as a religious minority in Xinjiang, of vacations cut short by mandatory teachings of "political anthems" and being banned from attending the mosque or observing Ramadan.

China claims it is addressing extremism through 'controlling unauthorized religious activities' and 'vocational education centers', but other countries, including the US, say its actions constitute ethnic cleansing. Zeynure says she never felt free to follow her religious beliefs in Xinjiang. "Individuals who went on pilgrimage to Mecca abroad were detained and sent to prison and told they must have some problem in their brain.

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

She eventually decided to depart China after returning home from college in Eastern China to a increasing repression on beliefs in 2011. It was then that she was introduced to Idris by one of her school friends. "She knew we both had taken the decision to go overseas and told us perhaps we could meet and go together."

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

A New Life in Turkey

Within two months they were married and ready to move for a new life in Turkey. They knew it was an Muslim-majority country with many Muslims and Uyghurs already residing there, with a similar tongue and shared ethnicity. "It was like Uyghurs' alternative homeland," says Zeynure. As a teacher and designer, they could also support the Uyghur population in diaspora. "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 die out," she says.

But their relief at finding a place of safety overseas was short-lived. Beijing has become a global leader in pursuing dissidents living in exile through the use of monitoring, intimidation and violence. But what Idris was faced was a newer tool of repression: using China's increasing 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 phone call from Idris, and learning he had an Interpol alert 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 support groups as she could find listed online in the EU and the US and begged for help. She was brave despite China having already shown a willingness to go after the family members of other targets.

Zeynure started demonstrating with her children at the diplomatic mission in Istanbul, and sharing information on social media. To her amazement, copycat protests soon occurred in Morocco demanding Idris's release. Moroccan officials were compelled to issue a announcement saying his deportation was a matter for the judicial system to determine.

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