The Activist Who Challenged China and Secured Her Husband's Freedom

In July 2021, a Uyghur woman named Zeynure was at her residence in Istanbul when she got 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 Casablanca. The lack of communication had been torturous.

But the news her husband Idris revealed was even worse. He informed her that upon landing in Morocco, he had been taken into custody and jailed. Authorities stated he would be sent back to China. "Reach out to everyone who can help me," he pleaded, before the line went silent.

Life as Ethnic Minority in Exile

The wife, 31 years old, and Idris, 37, are members of the Uyghur ethnic group, which constitutes about 50% of the residents in China's western Xinjiang region. Over the past decade, more than a 1,000,000 Uyghurs are believed to have been detained in so-called "re-education camps," where they faced mistreatment for commonplace actions like going to a place of worship or using a headscarf.

The pair had joined thousands of Uyghurs who fled to Turkey during the previous decade. They thought they would find security in exile, but soon realized they were mistaken.

"Authorities informed me that the Beijing officials threatened to close all its industrial plants in the country if Morocco released him," Zeynure stated.

After settling in Istanbul, Zeynure became an language instructor, while Idris began as a translator and artist, helping to publish Uyghur news and publications. They had three children and enjoyed free to live as followers of Islam.

But when one of Idris's close friends, who was employed in a library stocking Uyghur books, was detained in the mid-year of 2021, Idris became fearful. Reports indicated that Beijing was urging Turkey to extradite Uyghurs. Idris felt at risk due to his previous arrest, which he believed was linked to his work with activists and promoting Uyghur heritage. He chose to flee to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had lapsed, had to remain with the children until her husband could apply for a visa for the whole family.

A Terrible Error

Leaving Turkey proved to be a terrible mistake. At the airport, border control officials pulled him aside for questioning. "After he was finally permitted 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 deepest concerns were realized 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 pursue political refugees and had requested for Idris to be added on the agency's most-wanted "red notice list." Zeynure says Turkish officials allowed him board the flight aware he would be arrested upon landing in Morocco.

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

Parental Interference

Soon after hearing of her husband's detention, Zeynure got an unexpected 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 imprisoned for a few months upon their going back to China.

Her parents had a disturbing message. "They told me, 'We know your husband is not with you. Maybe we can help you,'" she explained. "I knew 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. 'Don't do anything except caring for your children,' they told me. 'Avoid saying anything negative about China.'"

But with her husband's life at stake, the softly spoken Zeynure was not going to remain silent. She had been raised witnessing women having their hijabs forcibly removed in public 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 these platforms. But I had to do something to save my husband – I had to reveal the reality to the world. Everyone knows Uyghurs deported to China will be abused or killed. They forced me to raise my voice."

Growing Up in Xinjiang

Zeynure has different types of recollections of her childhood in Xinjiang. The first was of blissful days spent in the rural areas with her grandparents, who were agricultural workers. "I used to play with the sheep and chickens. I don't know if I will ever have that type of opportunity again. The family around the house and land. It was too beautiful, like a scene from a book."

The second was as a Muslim Uyghur in Xinjiang, of school holidays interrupted by forced teachings of "political anthems" and being prohibited from going to the religious site or observing Ramadan.

China claims it is addressing extremism through 'controlling unauthorized religious activities' and 'training centers', but other nations, 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 pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia were arrested and transferred to prison and told they must have some problem in their brain.

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

She eventually decided to depart China after coming back home from college in another part of China to a increasing crackdown 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 choice to go overseas and told us maybe we could meet and go as a group."

Zeynure says she was right away comforted by Idris. "I realized he was very honest and shy, and couldn't be dishonest or do anything wrong. There were some Uyghur boys at university who wanted to wed me, but Idris was different."

Fresh Start in Turkey

Within 60 days they were married and prepared to leave for a different existence in Turkey. They knew it was an Islamic country with many believers and Uyghurs already residing there, with a similar tongue and shared ethnicity. "It was like Uyghurs' alternative homeland," says Zeynure. As a educator and designer, they could also help the Uyghur population in diaspora. "There are many children now in China growing up without Uyghur traditions or language so we think it's our responsibility to not let it die out," she says.

But their sense of safety at finding a secure location overseas was short-lived. Beijing has become a prominent force in targeting dissidents living in exile through the use of electronic surveillance, intimidation and physical assault. But what Idris was faced was a newer tool of control: using China's growing economic leverage to force other nations to bend to its demands, including detaining and extraditing Uyghurs it wants to silence.

Campaigning for Release

After the phone call from Idris, and learning he had an Interpol alert against him, Zeynure knew she only had a short window of opportunity to try to stop his deportation to China. She right away contacted 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 demonstrated a willingness to go after the family members of other targets.

Zeynure started protesting with her children at the diplomatic mission in Istanbul, and posting information on online platforms. To her surprise, similar protests soon followed in Morocco calling for Idris's freedom. Moroccan officials were compelled to put out a announcement saying his extradition was a issue for the courts to decide.

In early August 2021, Interpol withdrew Idris's alert after being urged 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|