NAIROBI

One of the most risky places in the world for a woman in pregnancy or childbirth is Afghanistan. An Afghan woman is 225 times more likely to die in childbirth than a woman in the UK, for example. There is hardly a family in Afghanistan that has not been touched by a tragic experience associated with childbirth.







In Veil of Tears, a 60-page colour booklet launched today, IRIN brings you a unique collection of personal stories of loss and courage in childbirth, as told by women, men and children from different parts of Afghanistan.







The stories were originally recorded in local languages, Dari and Pashto, for IRIN Radio broadcasts. Transcribed into English in Veil of Tears, they convey the immediacy and intimacy of the interviews conducted by IRIN reporters, who travelled in some cases for several days to reach the remotest villages in Afghanistan.







The testimonies in Veil of Tears offer some rarely reported perspectives on the issue of maternal mortality and as a compilation tell much about the state of today’s Afghanistan in the words of some of its most ordinary citizens.







The interviewees in the booklet talk about the struggle to get enough nutritious food to sustain a woman through pregnancy, and to feed their families on any given day; they describe the awesome distances and terrain that separate people living in the villages from the nearest health facility; they describe the lack of proper roads and transport that may leave a donkey cart as the only option to attempt a life-or-death journey with a pregnant wife or mother to a hospital; they explain the cultural and social rules that might mean decisions by men are made too late to save a woman and her baby.















Fact Box











One in eight Afghan women will probably die in childbirth







An Afghan woman is 225 times more likely to die in childbirth than a woman in UK







Only 25% of Afghan births are assisted by a skilled birth attendant







Fewer than 13,000 health workers serve an Afghan population of 28 million





For more, see IRIN’s regular reporting on Afghanistan





