For Pakistan Rising Fistula Cases Make SDG 3 Goal Elusive

Shehnaz Ali from Rahim Yar Khan, Pakistan, has been living with a fistula for 16 years. Credit: Zofeen T. Ebrahim/IPSby Zofeen Ebrahim (karachi, pakistan)Friday, October 02, 2026Inter Press Service KARACHI, Pakistan, October 2 (IPS) - “You’re living a life drained of joy,” is how Shehnaz Sher Ali describes her “perpetually wet and stinky” existence. “I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemy,” says the 35-year-old, who travelled by bus for more than 12 hours with her husband from their village in Rahim Yar Khan, Punjab, changing diapers whenever possible to keep the smell from reaching the fellow passengers. For 16 years, she had lived with urine dribbling, unaware that it was treatable with a relatively simple surgical procedure. She developed an iatrogenic fistula—caused by a surgical injury during a Caesarean section—and is among the estimated two million women living with untreated obstetric fistula worldwide.Shehnaz got married at the age of 18 and conceived soon after. At full term, her obstetrician suspected a complication for which she underwent a Caesarean section, but the baby was stillborn. The doctor then told the young couple she would not be able to conceive again.That was...