On barren soil Thousands of Romany women sterilized under a quiet communist campaign feel an apology is overdue, but critics say they knew the price By Felice Wilson Ema Pacikova says she never signed for it. She never wanted it. Twilight seeps into the one-room flat, falling on her dark, bare arms. She left sterilized.
Thousands tell a similar story.
They testify to the quiet but pernicious communist-era practice of sterilizing Romany women, often without their consent or under financial pressure. In the late 1980s, the state paid them to be sterilized. She has one teenage daughter and gave up her second child for adoption. Now my husband and I have conflicts, because he wants kids. Roma are an ethnic and cultural minority in Central and Eastern Europe, and have long been targets of racial discrimination.