A visionary of womens health and rights, father of the Safe Motherhood movement, and voice behind Why Did Mrs. X Die?, Dr Mahmoud Fathalla, died on 10 November 2023 at the age of 88.

Dr Fathalla assumed his role as Director of the UNs Special Programme on Human Reproduction (HRP) from 1989 to 1992, after two years as Head of Research with HRP and the World Health Organization (WHO) and years of work as a renowned doctor and Professor of Obstetrics & Gynaecology at Assiut University, Egypt.

When asked what one prescription women need most for their health, Dr Fathalla answered power. While the concept of listening to women was astoundingly provocative at the time, his commitment to equality and equity informed every aspect of his work.

Convinced from experience that maternal health was inextricably influenced by social trauma, Dr Fathallas leadership at HRP brought a seismic shift from a focus on biomedical interventions to solutions that address the very personal contexts in which women live.

In 1990, Dr Fathalla invited the International Womens Health Coalition to advise HRP on how to effectively solicit and respond to womens perspectives on fertility regulation technologies and services.

They co-convened a landmark meeting which emphasized the equal participation by womens health advocates alongside contraception specialists. The resulting report, Creating Common Ground, demonstrated the value of listening, and led to ongoing engagement of womens health and rights advocates in research, policy development and decision making.

HRP continued to conduct similar consultations throughout the 1990s, in every WHO region. This led to a series of Creating Common Ground publications, and influenced countless other epochal initiatives including the first safe abortion guidance document in 2001 and the forming of the Gender Advisory Panel (GAP) in 1995, which still reviews and provides advice on all aspects of HRPs work with attention to gender equality and considerations from a sexual and reproductive rights perspective.

Gentle, soft spoken and solitary, he was highly regarded by his colleagues who lovingly thought of him as a Sphinx. In the rare event that Dr Fathalla spoke, people listened. He often provided searing insights that cut through controversy.

When it came to the issue of abortion, he was forever motivated by his work as an obstetrician in Egypt, his own place of birth. Dr Fathalla often told the story of a woman he treated who had endured an unsafe abortion that left her uterus and intestines severely damaged.

In a speech on abortion he said, A woman can claim as her own her head, her hair, her hands, her arms, her upper body, her legs and her feet. She cannot claim the same right to the remaining area of her body, which appears to belong more to certain males of the species, moralists, politicians, lawyers, and others, all of whom claim to decide how this area is best utilized. Within this disputed territory the fetus happens to lie. Basically, the opposition to abortion was part of the wider spectrum of reproductive subordination of women. Men in the patriarchal societies have always reasoned that if women had control over their reproduction, they would also have the unthinkable: control over their own sexuality

The depth of Dr Fathallas commitment to building community, his passion for sexual and reproductive health and his humble, inexhaustible optimism in spite of many challenges is conveyed in his final thoughts and hopes for the future:

My very dear friends,

I asked my son Dr Mohamed to e-mail this message to you when I leave the stage of this present world. In saying farewell, I want to express my sincere appreciation and gratitude for our long association and friendship, and for our comradeship in serving noble causes. I consider myself fortunate and privileged to have known you and worked with you for a noble mission. We all can look back with satisfaction as we see a brilliant new generation moving forward with the torch. I wish you all many happy healthy productive years ahead, until we meet again in what I hope will be a better world and a rewarding life hereafter.

Warmest regards.

Yours sincerely,

Mahmoud

Originally posted here:
Tribute to Dr Mahmoud Fathalla - World Health Organization