The Wife Who Stood Up to China and Won Her Husband's Liberty

In July 2021, Zeynure Hasan was at her residence in Istanbul when she got a desperately anticipated phone call from her husband. There had been four stressful days since their last contact, when he was preparing to take a flight to Morocco. The lack of communication had been unbearable.

But the information her husband Idris shared was even worse. He told her that upon landing in Morocco, he had been arrested and jailed. Authorities told him he would be extradited to China. "Contact everyone who can assist me," he pleaded, before the line went dead.

Life as Ethnic Minority in Exile

Zeynure, 31 years old, and Idris, 37, are members of the mostly Muslim community, which makes up about 50% of the residents in China's north-western Xinjiang province. Over the past decade, over a million Uyghurs are reported to have been imprisoned in alleged "vocational training camps," where they faced torture for ordinary acts like going to a place of worship or using a headscarf.

The pair had joined many of Uyghurs who escaped 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 warned to shut down all its factories in the country if Morocco released him," Zeynure explained.

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure worked as an language instructor, while Idris began as a translator and designer, helping to publish Uyghur media and printed works. They had a family of three kids and enjoyed free to practice as Muslims.

But when one of Idris's best friends, who worked in a library 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 previous detention, which he believed was linked to his work with advocates and supporting 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 request a visa for the whole family.

A Costly Mistake

Leaving Turkey turned out to be a disastrous decision. At the airport, immigration officials took Idris aside for interrogation. "When he was eventually allowed 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 worst fears were confirmed when he was taken off the plane and detained by Moroccan authorities.

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

What happened next would lead her to do what many Uyghurs fear most: defy China, despite the risks.

Parental Pressure

Soon after learning of her husband's arrest, Zeynure received an surprising phone call from her parents in Xinjiang. She had been cut off from her family since they visited her in Turkey in 2016 and were imprisoned for several months upon their going back to China.

Her parents had a chilling message. "They told me, 'We know your husband is not with you. Maybe we can assist you,'" Zeynure explained. "I realized 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 negative about China.'"

But with her husband's safety at stake, the softly spoken Zeynure was not going to stay quiet. She had been raised witnessing women having their hijabs forcibly removed in open by the authorities and had been resolved 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 Facebook or these platforms. 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 raise my voice."

Growing Up in Xinjiang

Zeynure has two distinct types of recollections 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 scene from a story."

The second was as a Muslim Uyghur in Xinjiang, of school holidays interrupted by forced teachings of "communist songs" and being banned from attending the mosque or practicing Ramadan.

China claims it is tackling radicalism through 'managing illegal religious activities' and 'vocational education facilities', but other countries, including the US, say its actions amount to ethnic cleansing. Zeynure says she never felt able to follow her faith in Xinjiang. "People who went on religious journey to Mecca abroad were arrested and transferred to prison and told they must have some issue in their mind.

"They aimed for Uyghur people to forget their religion and heritage. They said 'you should trust in us, we gave you employment and this beautiful living here'," says Zeynure.

She finally decided to leave China after returning home from university in Eastern China to a increasing crackdown on religious freedoms 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 overseas and told us perhaps we could meet and go together."

Zeynure says she was right away reassured by Idris. "I saw he was very truthful and shy, and couldn't tell lies or do anything bad. There were some Uyghur men at university who wanted to marry 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 believers and Uyghurs already living there, with a comparable tongue and shared ethnicity. "It was like Uyghurs' alternative homeland," says Zeynure. As a educator and creative, they could also help the Uyghur population in diaspora. "There are many kids now in China growing up without Uyghur culture or language so we think it's our responsibility to not let it disappear," she says.

But their relief at locating a secure location abroad was temporary. Beijing has become a prominent force in pursuing critics living in exile through the use of monitoring, intimidation and physical assault. But what Idris was subjected to was a newer tool of repression: using China's growing financial influence to pressure other nations to yield to its will, including arresting 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 chance to try to stop his deportation to China. She right away reached out to as many Uyghur advocacy organizations as she could find advertised online in the EU and the US and pleaded for help. She was fearless despite China having already shown a readiness to target the family members of other individuals.

Zeynure started protesting with her children at the Moroccan embassy in Istanbul, and sharing updates on social media. To her surprise, copycat protests soon followed in Morocco demanding Idris's freedom. Moroccan officials were compelled to issue a announcement saying his deportation was a matter for the courts to decide.

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