When Shahnaz went into labour, her husband Abdul called a taxi to take them to the only medical facility accessible to them.
She was in a lot pain, he says.
A 20-minute drive away, the clinic was in Shesh Pol village in Afghanistan's north-eastern Badakhshan province. It was where their two older children were born.
Abdul sat next to Shahnaz comforting her as they drove over gravel tracks to reach help.
But when we reached the clinic, we saw that it was closed. I didn't know it had shut down, he said, his face crumpling with agony.
Warning: Readers may find some details in this article distressing.
The clinic in Shesh Pol is one of more than 400 medical facilities that closed down in Afghanistan following drastic cuts in US foreign aid after the Trump administration eliminated nearly all support earlier this year.
This single-storey clinic, previously a critical lifeline, assisted around 25-30 deliveries each month and provided basic healthcare services.
Without it, Abdul faced the desperate decision to return home, where Shahnaz ultimately delivered their baby girl in the car. Tragically, Shahnaz died shortly after due to excessive bleeding, and the baby also did not survive.
“I wept and screamed. My wife and child could have been saved if the clinic was open,” Abdul reflects. “We had a hard life, but we were living it together.”
This situation underscores the devastating impact of foreign aid cuts in Afghanistan. The US has been the largest donor, but fears regarding aid misallocation have led to welfare losses for ordinary citizens.
As Abdul shares his family's sorrow, he highlights that numerous women, including two others from his village, have died in childbirth since the clinic's closure, exemplifying the broader maternal healthcare crisis in Afghanistan.
