Nafis Sadik, an obstetrician-gynaecologist who in 1987 became the first woman to direct a United Nations agency – the UN Population Fund – and was widely regarded as one of the most effective champions of women's reproductive rights globally, has died aged 92.
Sadik, whose maternal grandmother died in childbirth, spent her early career as a medical corps officer in Pakistan’s armed forces and with the country’s family-planning programme. She was horrified by her years encountering women living in squalor and giving birth to as many as 15 children, often endangering their own lives. When she joined the fledgling UN Population Fund in 1971, she was tasked with helping poor women all over the world gain access to contraception and healthcare educational materials.
