In Darfur, one husband sticks by his wife despite society's pressure

Women with postchildbirth complications are often ostracized by their own families, but one man took his wife through a war zone to get her treatment.

from the July 23, 2007 edition

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"Fistula patients are often not accepted by their own families or neighbors, and even in hospitals, it is only doctors who deal with them," says Dr. Tahir Fasher, a surgeon at Saudi Maternity Hospital, which is funded by UNFPA. "Even after they are treated, some don't like to go back home, because of how they are treated." [Editor's note: The previous version did not include how the Al-Fasher School of Midwifery is funded.]

Omar Abdullah's moment of truth came on May 9, 2006, when his wife went into labor. The baby died, and Mecca suffered incontinence after that.

Omar's family stopped eating food cooked by Mecca, and insisted that she eat elsewhere, because of the persistent smell that followed her. Nobody in Omar's village had ever had fistula before, but Omar decided to take his wife to Al-Fasher to see if the condition could be treated.

"It's only [100 miles] from Kabkabya to Al-Fasher, so it should only be an hour's drive," says Omar. But instead, the journey took three days, as the rainy season turned the sandy tracks into slush, and as armed bandits targeted Omar's car, stealing everything his small family had. "They took all our belongings, except money that Mecca tied to her body, under her dress."

Once the family reached Al Fasher, Mecca waited four months to receive surgical treatment. But even at the Saudi Hospital, there was a kind of ostracism for fistula patients. Complaints from other patients, who had come to give birth, forced doctors to move fistula patients out into the open dusty field behind the hospital.

Nearly a year after leaving his village, Omar is now preparing to return home, with his wife and sons. She is well now, he says, and his family has sheepishly agreed that she can return home "if she is OK."

"They didn't help us in all those months, and neither did her family," says Omar, with no hint of bitterness. "I think this is just fate, for her and for my family. I don't have any bad thing in my heart for my family."

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