Women in Xinjiang shine a light on a campaign of abuse and control by Beijing

CNN — Zumrat Dawut said she was forcibly sterilized by the Chinese government for having one too many children. A US State Department report in 2019 said there had been reports of sexual abuse inside the detention centers, as well as by male Chinese government officials sent to stay with families across Xinjiang. On the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women in November 2019, the Uyghur Human Rights Project issued a statement calling it “crimes against humanity.” A generation changed Since the release of Zenz’s reportin June, the United States government has announced sanctions against prominent Chinese government officials in Xinjiang and the region’s Public Security Bureau. “The United States will not stand idly by as the carries out human rights abuses targeting Uyghurs, ethnic Kazakhs, and members of other minority groups in Xinjiang, to include forced labor, arbitrary mass detention, and forced population control, and attempts to erase their culture and Muslim faith,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement. “From one side they sterilize our women decreasing our population; from another side they separate families by sending husbands and wives to separate forced labor camps.” Mahmut, from the World Uyghur Congress, said she hasn’t spoken to her four sisters in Xinjiang since 2017, not daring call for fear of getting them in trouble with authorities.