In the confines of a cramped, dark room, Aigerim was kicked repeatedly in the stomach by a guard wearing heavy, metal-tipped boots. With her mouth taped shut and limbs chained, she couldn’t cry out in pain or block the blows.

In the weeks after those traumatic 24 hours, her abdomen swelled as if she were pregnant. Her periods stopped, and high fevers would come and go. Months after being released from one of China’s internment camps for Muslims, Aigerim, who is in her early 20s, is still struggling to understand her injuries, and is terrified they may have destroyed her dream of becoming a mother.

“Doctors here in Almaty say there’s internal injury in my uterus,” Aigerim, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, told the Telegraph. “I spend all my money on my health, but I haven’t recovered.” China has detained an estimated one million Muslims in camps in Xinjiang, a far western region in China. Officials have called them “vocational training centres” rehabilitating individuals at risk of becoming terrorists. Beijing has even touted its program as a sterling example of success in combating extremism.

But former detainees interviewed by the Telegraph who fled to neighbouring Kazakhstan upon release instead describe systematic torture and political indoctrination. Most declined to give their names on record given threats of detention against their family remaining in China. The vast majority of detainees are believed to be young men, considered by the Chinese state to be the greatest threat to security. But many women have also been locked up on insubstantial grounds, including simply travelling abroad.