A rush of cool air greets me as I enter the brightly lit room. The chill contrasts sharply with the stifling Cairo heat—still almost unbearable on an October afternoon—that pervaded the obstetrics clinic on the other side of the threshold. Wails of crying infants and worried murmurs of mothers and mothers-to-be fall silent as the door closes behind me. Shelves laden with “specimens” quickly catch my attention as my eyes adjust to the room’s sanitized light.

Before me, a scene from a horror film: a glimpse into the laboratory of a doctor pushing the boundaries between science and sadism. Deformed fetuses, ruptured uteruses, extracted fibroids, excised vulvae, and other gruesome parts float lifelessly in jars of yellow liquid fitted with QR codes. A diorama presents a fetus floating in a barrel of fluid. Headless torsos of pregnant women, lifelike diagrams of pelvic anatomy, and color illustrations of specimens on display...

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