Two weeks after Bakhor came home with her newborn son, the joy of the new baby was overshadowed by a growing suspicion that something had gone badly wrong.
“I kept bleeding heavy black lumps, and the pain was unbearable, I thought I had a tumor,” the 32-year-old Uzbek said.
It took Bakhor four months to save up money for an ultrasound. She cried as she remembered the result. During the caesarean section, the doctor explained, she had a hysterectomy.
“The doctor said: ‘You don’t have a uterus any more.’ He said: ‘What do you need it for? Two children is enough for you,’” she said.
A two-month long investigation for the BBC uncovered what appeared to be a systematic state-run program in Uzbekistan to sterilize women, often against their will and without their knowledge.
Uzbek President Islam Karimov tolerates no dissent in his country and women and doctors who told their stories did so on condition of anonymity. Over secure telephone lines, doctors and health ministry officials said that while first recorded cases of forced sterilizations go back to 2004, in 2009 sterilizations became a state policy.
“All of us have a sterilization quota,” said a gynecologist in the capital, Tashkent. “My quota is four women a month. We are under a lot of pressure.”
In rural areas, doctors said, the number can be as high as eight women a week.
“We go from house to house convincing women to have the operation,” a chief surgeon in a rural hospital said. “It’s easy to talk a poor woman into it. It’s also easy to trick them.”
Several doctors said that in the last two years there had been a dramatic increase in caesarean sections, disputing official statements that only 6.8 percent of women give birth that way.
“I believe 80 percent of women give birth through c-sections. This makes it very easy to tie the fallopian tubes,” one gynecologist said.
Doctors believe the program is meant to keep Uzbekistan’s growing population under control, although some suggest it is also a bizarre short-cut to lowering maternal and infant mortality rates.
In a statement, the Uzbek government said allegations of a forced sterilization program “have nothing to do with reality” and that the “surgical contraception is carried out only on a voluntary basis after consultation with a specialist and with the written consent of both spouses.”
However, on Friday the Avaaz pressure group called on US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to take the scandal up with Karimov. the group said Karimov was “propped up by millions of dollars from the US government who pay him for military transport across the country. This latest round of brutality, this time against his country’s women, has turned on the global spotlight.”
FRAUD ALLEGED: The leader of an opposition alliance made allegations of electoral irregularities and called for a protest in Tirana as European leaders are to meet Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama’s Socialist Party scored a large victory in parliamentary elections, securing him his fourth term, official results showed late on Tuesday. The Socialist Party won 52.1 percent of the vote on Sunday compared with 34.2 percent for an alliance of opposition parties led by his main rival Sali Berisha, according to results released by the Albanian Central Election Commission. Diaspora votes have yet to be counted, but according to initial results, Rama was also leading there. According to projections, the Socialist Party could have more lawmakers than in 2021 elections. At the time, it won 74 seats in the
A Croatian town has come up with a novel solution to solve the issue of working parents when there are no public childcare spaces available: pay grandparents to do it. Samobor, near the capital, Zagreb, has become the first in the country to run a “Grandmother-Grandfather Service,” which pays 360 euros (US$400) a month per child. The scheme allows grandparents to top up their pension, but the authorities also hope it will boost family ties and tackle social isolation as the population ages. “The benefits are multiple,” Samobor Mayor Petra Skrobot told reporters. “Pensions are rather low and for parents it is sometimes
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
CANCER: Jose Mujica earned the moniker ‘world’s poorest president’ for giving away much of his salary and living a simple life on his farm, with his wife and dog Tributes poured in on Tuesday from across Latin America following the death of former Uruguayan president Jose “Pepe” Mujica, an ex-guerrilla fighter revered by the left for his humility and progressive politics. He was 89. Mujica, who spent a dozen years behind bars for revolutionary activity, lost his battle against cancer after announcing in January that the disease had spread and he would stop treatment. “With deep sorrow, we announce the passing of our comrade Pepe Mujica. President, activist, guide and leader. We will miss you greatly, old friend,” Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi wrote on X. “Pepe, eternal,” a cyclist shouted out minutes later,
RSS