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Other women aren't asked at all. Uzbekistan women's rights organization Ozod Ayol (Free Woman) has recorded cases of involuntary hysterectomies. Khulkaroi Abdullaeva told them what happened when she went into hospital to deliver her third child:"They tied a sheet around my stomach and started pulling on it until it tore. They tormented me and I lost consciousness." The baby was stillborn, and afterwards doctors performed a hysterectomy. She also only discovered the extent of the operation later, when she realized she had not been fitted with the standard IUD.But despite persistent reports of these abuses, the international community has stayed silent on the matter. In fact, Uzbekistan has received praise for its meeting of Millennium Development Goals on reducing infant and maternal mortality rates, despite its disregard for all other human rights treaties.Women say they are often unaware of the nature of the procedure. One woman, "Shahida," a mother of two, was told it was reversible and only discovered the truth when those children died in a car crash and she was unsuccessful in conceiving more. Her husband left her.
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