Women and girls who have chosen
self-immolation as a way to escape from the many
difficulties of life in Afghanistan, where females have some
of the hardest lives in the world.
Cases of self-immolation soared in Herat
after the fall of the extremist Taleban regime in 2001, when
refugees started returning from Iran, where this method of
suicide is also practiced.
The motives for women who choose such
drastic action are often difficult to pinpoint. Families
often obscure the cause to hide shame, with suicide
forbidden by Islam, and can give false accounts.
Divorce taboo
Afghanistan's high rate of illiteracy - at
about 70 percent - means many families do not know how to
extricate themselves from difficulties.
When men and women are illiterate, they
cannot think widely and because they cannot solve their
problems, they decide to burn themselves or husbands decide
to burn the women. Forced marriages, with young girls being
made to marry older men - often as second or third wives -
or being given to other families to settle disputes,
contribute to the rise of conflicts and desperation among
women.
With divorce taboo in Afghanistan, women
can choose to kill themselves or make the attempt as a cry
for help. Self-immolation is a ready option, with fuel
easily available.
Go ahead
Her husband's son from his first wife beat
her, sometimes with a big stone, she says from her bed. She
told her husband to make him stop or she would kill herself.
"He said go ahead," she weeps.
"I felt I didn't have any other way. I did
not want to go to the police. I couldn't help myself."
In desperation
