The Woman Who Stood Up to China and Achieved Her Husband's Liberty

In the summer of 2021, a Uyghur woman named Zeynure was at her home in Istanbul when she answered a long-awaited phone call from her husband. There had been four stressful days since their last communication, when he was preparing to board a flight to Morocco. The silence had been unbearable.

But the news her husband Idris revealed was more devastating. He told her that upon arrival in Morocco, he had been taken into custody and imprisoned. Authorities informed him he would be deported to China. "Reach out to everyone who can assist me," he urged, before the line went silent.

Life as Uyghurs in Turkey

Zeynure, in her early thirties, and Idris, 37, are members of the Uyghur ethnic group, which makes up about half of the population in China's north-western Xinjiang region. Over the last ten years, over a 1,000,000 Uyghurs are estimated to have been detained in alleged "re-education camps," where they faced abuse for commonplace acts like going to a mosque or wearing a headscarf.

The couple had been among thousands of Uyghurs who fled to Turkey during the previous decade. They thought they would find safety in their new home, but quickly found they were wrong.

"Authorities informed me that the Chinese government threatened to shut down all its industrial plants in the nation if Morocco freed him," Zeynure stated.

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure worked as an language instructor, while Idris started as a interpreter and designer, assisting to publish Uyghur media and printed works. They had three children and felt able to practice as Muslims.

But when one of Idris's best friends, who was employed in a book repository containing Uyghur books, was arrested in the summer of 2021, Idris became fearful. News indicated that Beijing was pressuring Turkey to deport Uyghurs. Idris felt at risk due to his prior arrest, which he believed was connected to his work with activists and supporting Uyghur culture. He decided to escape to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had lapsed, had to stay behind with the children until her husband could apply for a travel document for the family.

A Costly Error

Leaving Turkey proved to be a terrible decision. At the airport, border control officials pulled him aside for questioning. "After he was eventually allowed to get on the plane, he told me how relieved he was that they had let him go, but it felt like a set-up to me," she recalled. Her worst fears were confirmed when he was removed from the plane and detained by Moroccan authorities.

Over the last ten years, China has been using the international police agency Interpol to target political refugees and had asked for Idris to be added on the agency's high-priority "red notice list." Zeynure says Turkish officials allowed him take the flight knowing he would be apprehended upon landing in Morocco.

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

Family Pressure

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

Her parents had a disturbing warning. "They said, 'We know your husband is not with you. Perhaps we can help you,'" Zeynure stated. "I knew there must be some police 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 negative about China.'"

But with her husband's life at stake, the quiet-mannered Zeynure was not going to stay quiet. She had grown up witnessing women having their head coverings ripped off in public by the authorities and had been determined to live in a country with freedom of belief.

"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 Twitter. But I had to do something to rescue my husband – I had to reveal the reality to the world. Everyone knows Uyghurs deported to China will be tortured or die. They forced me to speak out."

Growing Up in Xinjiang

Zeynure has different types of memories of her childhood in Xinjiang. The first was of happy days spent in the countryside with her elders, who were agricultural workers. "I'd 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 interrupted by mandatory teachings of "political anthems" and being banned from going to the mosque or observing Ramadan.

China claims it is addressing radicalism through 'managing illegal religious activities' and 'vocational education centers', but other countries, including the US, say its actions constitute ethnic cleansing. Zeynure says she never felt able to follow her religious beliefs in Xinjiang. "People who went on pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia were detained and sent to jail and told they must have some issue in their brain.

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

She finally decided to depart China after coming back 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 made the choice to go overseas and told us maybe we could get together and go together."

Zeynure says she was right away reassured by Idris. "I saw he was very honest and reserved, and couldn't be dishonest or do anything bad. There were some Uyghur boys at university who wanted to marry me, but Idris was different."

Fresh Start in Turkey

Within two months they were married and ready to leave for a new life in Turkey. They knew it was an Muslim-majority country with many believers and Uyghurs already residing there, with a similar language and shared ethnicity. "It was like Uyghurs' second home," says Zeynure. As a educator and designer, they could also support the Uyghur population in diaspora. "There are many children now in China being raised without Uyghur traditions or language so we think it's our duty to not let it disappear," she says.

But their sense of safety at finding a secure location abroad was short-lived. Beijing has become a global leader in targeting dissidents abroad through the use of electronic surveillance, threats and physical assault. But what Idris was subjected to was a more recent tool of repression: using China's increasing financial influence to force other countries to yield to its demands, including detaining and extraditing Uyghurs it wants to silence.

Fighting for Release

After the phone call from Idris, and learning he had an Interpol alert hanging over him, Zeynure knew she only had a limited time of opportunity to try to prevent his deportation to China. She immediately reached out to as many Uyghur support groups as she could find listed online in the EU and the US and pleaded for help. She was brave despite China having already shown a willingness to go after the relatives of other individuals.

Zeynure started demonstrating with her children at the diplomatic mission in Istanbul, and sharing updates on social media. To her surprise, similar protests soon occurred in Morocco calling for Idris's release. Moroccan officials were compelled to put out a statement saying his deportation was a issue for the judicial system to determine.

In early 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 deciding he should still be sent back to China. Zeynure says there was huge political influence from Beijing, which made {little sense|