Mass Steralisation in Uzbekistan

Link to the BBC radio report.

Last week a BBC report has revealed that women's reproductive organs have become "the new target of one of the most repressive regimes on earth" (Forced Sterilisation in Uzbekistan). Uzbekistan's plan to counter their population growth is to sterilise women without their permission. Most shocking is that "a woman can be sterilised without knowing that she has been sterilised" (Doctors in Uzbekistan).

Natalie Anteleva explained how this was possible. For "most women, the procedure is done after they give birth" (Doctors in Uzbekistan). This is particularly the case with women having caesarean sections, since the women are already heavily anaesthetised, unaware of what is happening and unable to stop anything that is being done to them. This is how women can be sterilised without ever realising.

According to Natalie's sources, doctors "are given quotas each month for how many women they need to sterilise" ranging "from one... to eight women a week" (Doctors in Uzbekistan). This is not something happening to a minority of women. It is affecting the vast majority, thousands of women are becoming victims. Some of Natalie's sources claim that over 80% of women in labour are having caesarean sections, many unnecessarily. Doctors really do seem to use caesarean sections as a way of sterilising women.

One particularly chilling story is of a young woman called Nigora who,  "is among many for whom forced sterilisation is a reality. She had an emergency C-section. A day later she was told she had been sterilised. On the same day, her newborn died" (Secretly Sterilising Women).

Several women during the report mentioned how they struggled to understand why their government took such drastic and costly measures to prevent population growth. They asked why the government couldn't try much cheaper methods methods like education campaigns which many believe would be just as effective.

The underlying answer seems to be that this totalitarian Uzbekistan government wants full control over their citizens, especially the women. The men, while possibly having their freedoms restricted are not exposed to the same sort of invasive treatment. The mass violation of women's bodies shows that the government fails to recognise that women own their own bodies. The government believes that they can sterilise women without permission, disregarding the terrible side effects that may occur.