[Benjamin]

The BBC has been told by doctors that Uzbekistan is running a secret programme to sterilise women - and has talked to women sterilised without their knowledge or consent.

Adolat has striking looks, a quiet voice and a secret that she finds deeply shameful.

She knows what happened is not her fault, but she cannot help feeling guilty about it.

Adolat comes from Uzbekistan, where life centres around children and a big family is the definition of personal success. Adolat thinks of herself as a failure.

"What am I after what happened to me?" she says as her hand strokes her daughter's hair - the girl whose birth changed Adolat's life.

"I always dreamed of having four - two daughters and two sons - but after my second daughter I couldn't get pregnant," she says.

“Every doctor is told how many women are to be sterilised - there is a quota”

She went to see a doctor and found out that she had been sterilised after giving birth to her daughter by Caesarean section.

"I was shocked. I cried and asked: 'But why? How could they do this?' The doctor said, 'That's the law in Uzbekistan.'"

Sterilisation is not, officially, the law in Uzbekistan.

But evidence gathered by the BBC suggests that the Uzbek authorities have run a programme over the last two years to sterilise women across the country, often without their knowledge.

Foreign journalists are not welcome in Uzbekistan, and in late February of this year the authorities deported me from the country. I met Adolat and many other Uzbek women in the relative safety of neighbouring Kazakhstan. I also gathered testimony by telephone and email, and in recordings brought out of the country by courier.

None of the women wanted to give their real names but they come from different parts of Uzbekistan and their stories are consistent with those of doctors and medical professionals inside the country.

"Every year we are presented with a plan. Every doctor is told how many women we are expected to give contraception to; how many women are to be sterilised," says a gynaecologist from the Uzbek capital, Tashkent.

Like all doctors I interviewed, she spoke on a condition of anonymity. Talking to a foreign journalist could result in a prison term, in a country where torture in detention is the norm.

"There is a quota. My quota is four women a month," she says.

Two other medical sources suggest that there is especially strong pressure on doctors in rural areas of Uzbekistan, where some gynaecologists are expected to sterilise up to eight women per week.

More on the article

Jesus, this is horrible. These poor women.

[Marc]

Wow.

This is a long post

[Marc]

Wow.

This is a long post

[Benjamin]

I've shortened it for you.

[arista]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uzbekistan



Nations ending "stan"
seem to be doomed.

[arista]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uzbekistan



Nations ending "stan"
seem to be doomed.

[Mystic Mock]

Why are they doing this? they have no right to say if women want children or not.

I hope they have oil because America and UK will go for them then.

[Shaun]

Almost all of the -stan countries, that is to say the 6 smaller ones above Afghanistan - seem to be utterly unregulated and, dare I say, absolutely crazy. The former dictator, and "president for life" of Turkmenistan, Saparmurat Niyazov, is a prime example:

Niyazov banned the use of lip syncing at public concerts in 2005 as well as sound recordings at "musical performances on state holidays, in broadcasts by Turkem television channels, at all cultural events organized by the state... in places of mass assembly and at weddings and celebrations organized by the public," citing a negative effect on the development of musical arts incurred by the use of recorded music.[25][26]
Niyazov banished dogs from the capital Ashgabat because of their "unappealing odor." [26]
According to the Ashgabat correspondent of Turkmenistan.ru right-hand-drive imported cars converted to left-hand-drive were banned due to a perceived increased risk in accidents.[27]
Niyazov requested that a "palace of ice", or indoor ice skating rink, be built near the capital, so that those living in the desert country could learn to skate. The palace was built in 2008 and located near the new Turkmen State Medical University.[28]
After having to quit smoking in 1997 due to his resultant heart surgery, he banned smoking in all public places and ordered all government employees to follow suit. Chewing tobacco on Turkmen soil was later banned as well.[citation needed]
He outlawed opera, ballet, and the circus in 2001 for being "decidedly unturkmen-like".[29]
In February 2004 he decreed that men should no longer wear long hair or beards.[30]
He banned news reporters and anchors from wearing make-up on television, apparently because he believed Turkmen women were already beautiful enough without make-up.
Gold teeth were outlawed in Turkmenistan after Niyazov suggested that the populace chew on bones to strengthen their teeth and lessen the rate at which they fall out. He said:

I watched young dogs when I was young. They were given bones to gnaw to strengthen their teeth. Those of you whose teeth have fallen out did not chew on bones. This is my advice...[31]

[Tom4784]

It's an awful situation, I hope that change comes to these places before long and the people behind it are made to face charges.

Originally Posted by Shaun

Almost all of the -stan countries, that is to say the 6 smaller ones above Afghanistan - seem to be utterly unregulated and, dare I say, absolutely crazy. The former dictator, and "president for life" of Turkmenistan, Saparmurat Niyazov, is a prime example:

Bitch is cray cray.

Youtube video

[Benjamin]

Originally Posted by Shaun

Almost all of the -stan countries, that is to say the 6 smaller ones above Afghanistan - seem to be utterly unregulated and, dare I say, absolutely crazy. The former dictator, and "president for life" of Turkmenistan, Saparmurat Niyazov, is a prime example:

It's a crying shame people like that have so much power.