The Woman Who Stood Up to Chinese Authorities and Achieved Her Husband's Freedom

In the summer of 2021, a Uyghur woman named Zeynure was at her residence in Turkey's largest city when she got a long-awaited phone call from her husband. There had been four agonizing days since their last contact, when he was preparing to board a flight to Morocco. The lack of communication had been unbearable.

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

Existence as Ethnic Minority in Turkey

The wife, in her early thirties, and Idris, 37, are part of the Uyghur community, which makes up about half of the population in China's western Xinjiang region. Over the last ten years, more than a million Uyghurs are reported to have been detained in alleged "re-education camps," where they faced abuse for ordinary actions like attending a mosque or wearing a headscarf.

The couple had been among many of Uyghurs who fled to Turkey during the 2010s. They believed they would find security in exile, but soon realized they were wrong.

"I was told that the Chinese government threatened to shut down all its factories in the country if Morocco released him," she explained.

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure became an language instructor, while Idris began as a interpreter and designer, helping to publish Uyghur news and publications. They had a family of three kids and felt free to practice as followers of Islam.

But when one of Idris's best friends, who worked in a book repository containing Uyghur books, was detained in the mid-year of 2021, Idris panicked. News indicated that Beijing was pressuring Turkey to deport Uyghurs. Idris felt at risk due to his prior detention, which he believed was linked to his work with activists and promoting Uyghur heritage. He decided 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 family.

A Terrible Mistake

Departing Turkey turned out to be a disastrous mistake. At the airport, immigration officials pulled him aside for interrogation. "When he was finally allowed 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 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 utilizing the global police agency Interpol to target dissidents and had asked for Idris to be added on the agency's high-priority "red notice list." Zeynure claims Turkish officials allowed 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.

Parental Pressure

Shortly after learning of her husband's arrest, Zeynure got an surprising phone call from her parents in Xinjiang. She had been cut off from her relatives since they came to see her in Turkey in 2016 and were jailed for a few months upon their return to China.

Her parents had a disturbing message. "They said, 'We know your husband is not with you. Maybe we can assist 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. 'Avoid doing anything except feeding your children,' they told me. 'Avoid saying anything bad about China.'"

But with her husband's life 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 authorities and had been determined 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 social media or Twitter. But I had to do something to rescue my husband – I had to reveal the reality to the world. Everyone knows Uyghurs sent to China will be tortured or killed. They pushed me to raise my voice."

Childhood in Xinjiang

Zeynure has different types of memories of her early years in Xinjiang. The first was of blissful days spent in the countryside with her grandparents, who were farmers. "I used to play with the animals and chickens. I don't know if I will ever have that type of chance again. The family around the house and farm. It was too beautiful, like a scene from a story."

The second was as a religious minority in Xinjiang, of vacations cut short by mandatory teachings of "political anthems" and being banned 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 constitute ethnic cleansing. Zeynure says she never felt able to practice her faith in Xinjiang. "People who went on pilgrimage to Mecca abroad were arrested and transferred to jail and told they must have some issue in their brain.

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

She eventually decided to leave China after returning home from college in another part of China to a increasing 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 decision to go overseas and told us perhaps we could get together and go together."

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

A New Life in Turkey

Within two months they were wed and ready to move for a new life in Turkey. They knew it was an Islamic country with many Muslims and Uyghurs already living there, with a similar tongue and shared background. "It felt like Uyghurs' alternative homeland," says Zeynure. As a educator and designer, they could also help the Uyghur population in exile. "We have many children now in China growing up without Uyghur traditions or dialect so we think it's our responsibility to not let it die out," she says.

But their sense of safety at locating a secure location overseas was short-lived. Beijing has become a global leader in targeting critics living in exile 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 economic leverage to force other countries to bend to its demands, including detaining and extraditing Uyghurs it wants to silence.

Fighting for Freedom

After the phone call from Idris, and discovering he had an Interpol red notice against him, Zeynure knew she only had a limited time of opportunity to try to prevent his deportation to China. She right away contacted as many Uyghur advocacy organizations as she could find listed online in the EU and the US and pleaded for assistance. She was fearless despite China having already shown a willingness to target the family members of other individuals.

Zeynure started protesting with her children at the Moroccan embassy in Istanbul, and posting information on social media. To her surprise, copycat protests soon followed in Morocco demanding Idris's release. Moroccan officials were compelled to issue a announcement saying his extradition was a matter for the judicial system to determine.

In the start of August 2021, Interpol cancelled 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 sent back to China. Zeynure says there was huge political influence from Beijing, which made {little sense|