The Woman Who Stood Up to China and Won Her Spouse's Liberty

In the summer of 2021, Zeynure Hasan was at her residence in Turkey's largest city when she got a long-awaited phone call from her husband. There had been four stressful days since their last contact, when he was preparing to take a flight to Casablanca. The lack of communication had been difficult.

But the news her husband Idris delivered was more alarming. He explained that upon landing in Morocco, he had been detained and imprisoned. Authorities stated he would be extradited to China. "Contact everyone who can help me," he urged, before the line went silent.

Life as Uyghurs in Turkey

The wife, 31 years old, and Idris, in his late thirties, are members of the mostly Muslim community, which makes up about 50% of the population in China's north-western Xinjiang province. Over the last ten years, more than a 1,000,000 Uyghurs are estimated to have been detained in so-called "re-education camps," where they faced mistreatment for ordinary acts like attending a place of worship or using a headscarf.

The couple had joined thousands of Uyghurs who fled to Turkey during the 2010s. They thought they would find security in their new home, but soon found they were wrong.

"Authorities informed me that the Chinese government warned to close all its factories in the country if Morocco freed him," she stated.

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure became an English teacher, while Idris started as a interpreter and artist, helping to publish Uyghur media and printed works. They had a family of three kids and felt able to practice as Muslims.

But when one of Idris's best friends, who worked in a library stocking Uyghur books, was arrested in the mid-year of 2021, Idris became fearful. Reports indicated that Beijing was pressuring Turkey to extradite Uyghurs. Idris felt vulnerable due to his prior arrest, which he suspected was linked to his work with activists and promoting Uyghur culture. 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 visa for the whole family.

A Costly Error

Departing Turkey proved to be a terrible decision. At the Istanbul airport, immigration officials took Idris aside for questioning. "When he was eventually allowed to board the plane, he told me how relieved he was that they had let him go, but it felt like a set-up to me," Zeynure recalled. Her deepest concerns were realized when he was removed from the plane and detained by Moroccan authorities.

Over the last ten years, China has been using the global police agency Interpol to target political refugees and had asked for Idris to be added on the agency's most-wanted "alert list." Zeynure says Turkish officials let him take the flight aware he would be apprehended upon landing in Morocco.

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

Family Pressure

Shortly after hearing of her husband's detention, Zeynure got an unexpected phone call from her family in Xinjiang. She had been separated from her family since they came to see her in Turkey in 2016 and were imprisoned for several 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 assist you,'" she 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 stake, the quiet-mannered Zeynure was not going to remain silent. She had grown up seeing women having their hijabs ripped off in open 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 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 reveal the truth to the world. Everyone knows Uyghurs sent to China will be abused or die. They pushed me to raise my voice."

Growing Up in Xinjiang

Zeynure has two distinct types of memories of her childhood in Xinjiang. The first was of blissful days spent in the rural areas with her elders, who were farmers. "I used to play with the sheep and poultry. 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 interrupted 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 'controlling illegal religious activities' and 'vocational education facilities', but other countries, including the US, say its actions constitute genocide. Zeynure says she never felt free to practice her faith in Xinjiang. "People who went on pilgrimage to Mecca abroad were arrested and sent to jail and told they must have some issue in their mind.

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

She finally decided to leave China after coming back home from university in another part of China to a increasing repression on beliefs in 2011. It was then that she was connected to Idris by one of her classmates. "She knew we both had taken 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 saw he was very truthful and reserved, and couldn't be dishonest or do anything wrong. 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 wed and prepared to leave for a new life in Turkey. They knew it was an Islamic country with many Muslims and Uyghurs already residing there, with a similar language and common background. "It felt like Uyghurs' alternative homeland," says Zeynure. As a teacher and creative, they could also support the Uyghur population in exile. "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 relief at locating a place of safety overseas was temporary. Beijing has become a global leader in pursuing dissidents living in exile through the use of electronic surveillance, intimidation and physical assault. But what Idris was subjected to was a more recent tool of repression: using China's increasing economic leverage to pressure other countries to bend to its demands, including detaining and extraditing Uyghurs it wants to suppress.

Campaigning for Freedom

After the call from Idris, and discovering he had an Interpol alert hanging over him, Zeynure knew she only had a short window of opportunity to try to prevent his deportation to China. She right away reached out to as many Uyghur advocacy organizations as she could find advertised on the internet in the EU and the US and begged 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 Moroccan embassy in Istanbul, and sharing information on social media. To her amazement, copycat 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 deciding he should still be sent back to China. Zeynure says there was huge diplomatic pressure from Beijing, which made {little sense|