Pregnant and breaking the law

Fahimeh was just 16 when she was forced to marry a man 11 years her senior. She grew up in a conservative family.

"My mother believed that girls should not know anything about things like sex and menstruation," she says.

After the wedding she was sent home with her husband.

From the very beginning Fahimeh knew she didn't want to stay in the marriage, but she was afraid of telling her family, thinking they would not understand. Knowing little about sex and contraception, Fahimeh became pregnant straight away.

More than 200 million women in the developing world don't have access to modern contraceptives, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Fahimeh was one of them.

She pleaded with her husband to help her end the pregnancy.

Eventually he agreed. Abortion in Iran is illegal unless the pregnancy poses a risk to the woman's life or the foetus has severe physical deformities.

Because of these restrictions, the abortion pill is not available on the market. So Fahimeh's husband bought hormone injections, which can cause a miscarriage, on the black market. The couple then went to a midwife who was willing to administer the injections.

Fahimeh was treated on a dirty old sofa in a damp basement. The midwife advised her to lift heavy things once she got home to help the hormones take effect. But she also warned her the termination might not succeed.

After a few hours, Fahimeh started feeling sick, as if she'd been poisoned. Unable to move and feeling very dizzy, she was rushed to hospital. Her parents were called in. Finding out that their daughter was trying for an abortion, they took Fahimeh away and told her husband not to contact her.

Fahimeh's parents took her to a gynaecologist. The doctor told them the injections could have damaged the foetus and recommended a legal abortion. But Fahimeh's mother refused, saying it would be "a sin". With no choice but to keep the baby, Fahimeh was sent back to her husband's home.

Fahimeh's son was born with severe lung problems and later developed epilepsy. After two years, her husband left, leaving Fahimeh to raise her son on her own.

"It's all my fault, a simple miscalculation," Mahbod says. The remorse in his voice is audible. Seven years ago, Mahbod who was a medical student, was in a relationship and planning to get engaged. He says he miscalculated his partner's menstrual cycle and she became pregnant.

Mahbod knew someone who sold illegal injections on the black market which could be used for abortions.
Mahbod administered the injections himself.

Despite the pain and bleeding that followed, the abortion attempt failed. Mahbod asked for help and was told of a doctor in a nearby town who could provide abortion pills. Mahbod's girlfriend was in excruciating pain and under a lot of stress.

Although they were planning to get married, this pregnancy could get them both into trouble. Some women who have had sexual intercourse before marriage choose to have their hymen surgically fixed, a service advertised openly on social media.

The doctor prescribed some pills and sent them away.
"The pharmacist kept asking me who had prescribed these pills and for what reason," Mahbod remembers.

He and his girlfriend both still lived with their parents, so after taking the pills they couldn't go home. Instead they spent hours outside waiting for the abortion to start.

After almost seven hours it was finally over. Mahbod says the experience made him realise how dangerous illicit abortions can be and how important it is for them to be carried out safely and with professional supervision.

"'You are pregnant.' One short sentence caused the world to spin around me," Zahra says, recalling the unexpected diagnosis. She had gone for a scan for a completely different reason. Zahra was not married and the pregnancy could have serious consequences in religiously conservative Iran.

A million questions were swirling around in her mind.

It was clear to the doctor that Zahra was in shock. He calmed her down and told her not to worry. "There are many doctors out there who can take care of it for you," he told her, without giving further details.

Zahra wanted to end the pregnancy as soon as possible and called a midwife whom she knew carried out illegal abortions. As Zahra was six weeks pregnant the midwife suggested a surgical abortion, booking her in for the next day.

Arriving a little before her appointment, Zahra was greeted by the midwife's assistant who told her to hurry in before anyone could see her. She was urged to be quiet at all times. The abortion was done right there in what seemed to be an improvised space.

A week later Zahra went for a scan to make sure everything was fine but to her surprise the foetus was still in her womb.

"I went back to the midwife. She gave me abortion pills and the job was done," she recalls. "The truth is, I was so worried about people finding out that I rushed into a decision. I was not given proper and professional advice."

Zahra thinks the abortion could have been done with a pill in the first place and that people took advantage of her vulnerability to make more money.

"The midwife never suggested that I could take a pill and the surgery was 10 times more expensive than the pill," Zahra says. "The midwife was doing business!"

The stigma attached to pregnancies of unmarried women means they are willing to risk their lives. The Iranian health ministry says that 6,000 medical abortions are carried out in the country every year, while an estimated 250,000 abortions take place illegally. The numbers are impossible to independently verify.