The Activist Who Defied Chinese Authorities and Secured Her Husband's Release

In July 2021, Zeynure Hasan was at her residence in Istanbul when she received a long-awaited phone call from her husband. It had been four painful days since their last communication, when he was getting ready to take a flight to Casablanca. The lack of communication had been torturous.

But the information her husband Idris shared was more devastating. He informed her that upon landing in Morocco, he had been detained and jailed. Authorities told him he would be extradited to China. "Contact everyone who can rescue me," he said, before the line went silent.

Life as Ethnic Minority in Exile

Zeynure, 31 years old, and Idris, 37, are members of the mostly Muslim ethnic group, which constitutes about half of the residents in China's western Xinjiang region. Over the last ten years, over a million Uyghurs are reported to have been imprisoned in so-called "re-education camps," where they faced mistreatment for commonplace acts like attending a place of worship or wearing a hijab.

The pair had been among thousands of Uyghurs who escaped to Turkey during the 2010s. They thought they would find refuge in their new home, but soon realized they were wrong.

"Authorities informed me that the Beijing officials warned to close all its industrial plants in the country if Morocco released him," she said.

After moving in Istanbul, Zeynure worked as an English teacher, while Idris began as a interpreter and designer, helping to publish Uyghur media and printed works. They had three children and enjoyed able to practice as Muslims.

But when one of Idris's close friends, who worked in a book repository containing Uyghur books, was detained in the mid-year of 2021, Idris panicked. Reports indicated that Beijing was urging Turkey to deport Uyghurs. Idris felt at risk due to his previous detention, which he believed was connected to his work with activists and promoting Uyghur heritage. He chose to escape to Morocco, but Zeynure, whose Chinese passport had lapsed, had to remain with the children until her husband could apply for a travel document for the family.

A Costly Mistake

Departing Turkey proved to be a terrible decision. At the Istanbul airport, immigration officials took Idris aside for questioning. "After he was eventually permitted 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 realized when he was taken off the plane and detained by border officials.

Over the past decade, China has been utilizing the international police agency Interpol to pursue political refugees and had asked for Idris to be added on the agency's high-priority "alert list." Zeynure claims Turkish officials let him board the flight knowing he would be apprehended upon landing in Morocco.

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

Parental Interference

Shortly after hearing of her husband's arrest, Zeynure got an unexpected phone call from her parents in Xinjiang. She had been separated from her relatives since they came to see her in Turkey in 2016 and were jailed for several 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,'" Zeynure explained. "I knew there must be some authorities 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. 'Don't say anything negative about China.'"

But with her husband's safety at risk, the softly spoken Zeynure was not going to remain silent. She had been raised witnessing women having their hijabs ripped off in public by the police and had been resolved to live in a country with religious freedom.

"Before 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 these platforms. 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 die. They forced me to raise my voice."

Childhood in Xinjiang

Zeynure has different types of memories of her childhood in Xinjiang. The first was of happy days spent in the rural areas with her grandparents, who were agricultural workers. "I'd play with the animals and chickens. I don't know if I will ever have that kind of chance again. The family around the home and land. It was too wonderful, like a picture from a story."

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

China says it is addressing extremism through 'controlling unauthorized religious activities' and 'training centers', but other nations, including the US, say its actions constitute genocide. Zeynure says she never felt able to practice her faith in Xinjiang. "People who went on religious journey to Mecca in Saudi Arabia were detained and transferred to prison and told they must have some issue in their mind.

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

She eventually decided to depart China after returning home from university in Eastern China to a increasing repression on religious freedoms in 2011. It was then that she was connected to Idris by one of her school friends. "She knew we both had made the decision 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 reserved, and couldn't be dishonest or do anything wrong. There were some Uyghur men at university who wanted to wed me, but Idris was different."

Fresh Start in Turkey

Within 60 days they were married and ready to move for a different existence in Turkey. They knew it was an Islamic country with many Muslims and Uyghurs already residing there, with a similar language and common ethnicity. "It was like Uyghurs' alternative homeland," says Zeynure. As a educator and creative, they could also help the community 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 locating a place of safety overseas was short-lived. Beijing has become a prominent force in targeting dissidents living in exile through the use of electronic surveillance, intimidation and violence. But what Idris was subjected to was a more recent method of repression: using China's growing economic leverage to force other countries to bend to its demands, including arresting and deporting Uyghurs it wants to silence.

Campaigning for Freedom

After the phone call from Idris, and discovering he had an Interpol alert against him, Zeynure knew she only had a limited time of opportunity to try to stop 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 begged for assistance. She was fearless despite China having already demonstrated a readiness to go after the relatives of other individuals.

Zeynure started demonstrating with her children at the Moroccan embassy in Istanbul, and posting updates 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 statement saying his extradition was a issue for the judicial system to determine.

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