Muslim women forced to have abortions in Chinese detention

The horrors suffered by Muslims in China’s detention camps continue to unfold as fresh reports reveal that ethnic Kazakh women were forced to have abortions while under arrest.

According to an Al-Jazeera report, ethnic Kazakhs were rounded up alongside Uyghur Muslims by Beijing and placed in China’s internment camps in the northwest as hundreds of bereaved family members in the neighboring country demand their immediate release.

Kazakh Gulzyra Mogdyn is among the women speaking out against China’s abuse of the Muslim minority as she hopes to break the silence surrounding the taboo.

“When I was crossing the border they saw me using WhatsApp. I was detained and sent for a thorough medical test. They found I was pregnant and forced me to abort.”

She decided to speak out only after she had been awarded citizenship by Kazakhstan.

Mogdyn says the abuse she suffered “had scarred her for life,” and she frequently suffers headaches as a result of her traumatic ordeal.

“After the abortion they isolated me in a clinic and gave me some medicine which they said was for tuberculosis. I don’t know what it was,” Mogdyn said.

China’s western Xinjiang region is home to 10 million Uighurs. The Turkic Muslim group, which makes up around 45% of Xinjiang’s population, has long accused China’s authorities of cultural, religious and economic discrimination.

China is accused by the UN and a myriad of other states and groups of carrying out repressive policies against the Uyghurs and restraining their religious, commercial and cultural rights.

Up to 1 million people, or about 7% of the Muslim population in Xinjiang, have been incarcerated in an expanding network of camps, according to U.S. officials and UN experts.

In a report last September on Uyghurs, Human Rights Watch accused the Chinese government of carrying out a “systematic campaign of human rights violations.”

China, which desperately needs the rich natural resources of Xinjiang to fuel its economic growth and demand, denies any charge, claiming Uyghurs are being educated in "vocational training centers."