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Desperate Afghan Women Opt for Fiery Suicides
Reuters ^ | April 23, 2004 | David Brunnstrom

Posted on 04/24/2004 7:03:04 AM PDT by prairiebreeze

HERAT, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Nineteen-year-old Zahara says the day of her wedding was one of the happiest of her life.

But the marriage quickly became a nightmare of quarrels and beatings. Just three month later, she lies in hospital, her pretty face and much of her body scarred by horrific burns, after she poured petrol over her head and lit a match.

In post-Taliban Afghanistan, despite a new constitution enshrining women's rights that the Western-backed government passed in January, this remains a depressingly familiar story.

Zahara is one of many women to attempt a fiery suicide rather than be trapped in an unhappy marriage or denied the opportunity to make something of their lives.

In the past year, the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission has recorded at least 110 cases of self-immolation by women in just five parts of the country.

There have been no fewer than 56 cases in Herat, a Western province ruled by a hard-line Islamist accused of continuing "Taliban-like" restrictions on women.

Rights workers say the phenomenon reflects a culture of violence, discrimination and broken post-Taliban dreams. They also say the problem could be far worse than the statistics show.

Lying on a filthy hospital bed in the city of Herat, Zahara clearly found it painful to speak, but once she began, her story gushed out in a torrent of hurt.

"My body was black from beatings," she said. "I was happy to kill myself because life was unbearable."

Zahara said her husband taunted her when she said she wanted to return to her family and threatened her with a gun. Eventually he said she should kill herself if she was so unhappy.

"He thought I was joking, but I took the matches and set myself on fire," she said. "At first I was happy to get married, but things turned really bad."

Other women tending relatives nearby shook their heads and tutted in understanding as she spoke. Zahara's mother, Sharifa, sobbed quietly at the foot of the bed. Herat Hospital director Dr Arif Shaharn said some women chose suicide rather than being sold into marriages to men as old as 75. The youngest to burn herself in Herat was just 14.

"WAY TO ESCAPE"

"They think it's the only way to escape. It's a very important issue and we are investigating why there should be such a high incidence here in Herat," said Shaharn.

He said the women used whatever flammable substance was available. "Sometimes it's gasoline, other times cooking oil."

"The burns in these cases are usually 80-90 percent, which is generally fatal," he said.

The Rights Commission's Ahmad Nedar Nadery blamed Herat's high number of suicides on both domestic violence and what he said were stultifying restrictions on women's rights imposed by Governor Ismail Khan, a rival of President Hamid Karzai.

While Khan, unlike the Taliban, supports female education -- albeit strictly segregated -- women's job opportunities are sharply curtailed in Herat and all are still expected to wear cover-all burqas or Iranian-style chador veils whenever they venture outdoors.

Marjo Stroud, of the German NGO Medica Mondiale in Herat -- a city with one of the best-educated female populations in Afghanistan -- said depression rates among women were very high.

"Many young women are afraid to believe their dreams," she said. "Even if their families support them, they don't know if their job opportunities might suddenly end."

Khan has, for instance, discouraged women from joining nongovernmental organizations, saying that Afghans who allowed their wives to work with foreign men could not be real men.

Women have also been banned from working in tailors' shops because of "the potential for un-Islamic activity" and the only driving school for women has been shut down

Dr Sohillah Arab works in the women's burns section in Herat Hospital, where patients are crammed together in a bleak, grubby annex at the end of a corridor. She said Zahara had been lucky as she had suffered only 60 percent burns and had received treatment relatively quickly.

Many women die of secondary infections. The hospital has no sterile burns unit and patients are expected to recuperate on rusting beds in poorly swept wards buzzing with flies.

Dr Shaharn said a foreign NGO had promised to help fund a burns unit, but nothing had yet materialized .

Zahara is again fortunate to come from a closely knit family which plans to take her soon to Iran for treatment.

"I kept telling her she should never do anything like this and she should divorce if she was unhappy," her mother said. "But she told me they tried to kill her and that he had pulled a gun out on her several times, so she had to do it.

"I have passports for us both and we will go to Iran," she said. "My husband is happy to spend money on his daughter."


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: afghanistan; afghanwomen; beatings; fire; intimidation; muslimwomen; southasia; suicides
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This seems to be particularly prevelant in Herat.
1 posted on 04/24/2004 7:03:05 AM PDT by prairiebreeze
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To: prairiebreeze
There are probably still Kalishnikovs all over that country - why not pick one up and declare a personal self-defense jihad against an abusive husband?
2 posted on 04/24/2004 7:11:37 AM PDT by valkyrieanne
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To: valkyrieanne
I have a suspicion that claiming self-defense for a woman doesn't carry much water in Islamic court.

Prairie
3 posted on 04/24/2004 7:13:02 AM PDT by prairiebreeze (Gorelick, Ben-Veniste, Kerrey, Roemer. All proud, card-carrying members of "America's Fifth Column".)
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To: prairiebreeze
I thought that we had brought the rule of law and democracy to Afghanistan! Another nation-building failure. So what else is new.
4 posted on 04/24/2004 7:16:27 AM PDT by Austin Willard Wright
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To: Austin Willard Wright
No, but if they declare Jihad...
5 posted on 04/24/2004 7:18:35 AM PDT by Pikachu_Dad
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To: Austin Willard Wright
"...Another nation-building failure. So what else is new."

Uh, they burned women as witches in Salem, Massachusetts at one point in OUR history.

One generation or two is but a blink of an eye in terms of time and long-term successful results.

6 posted on 04/24/2004 7:21:45 AM PDT by DCPatriot
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To: prairiebreeze
The islamo-fascist version of a woman's right to choose.
7 posted on 04/24/2004 7:22:06 AM PDT by trek
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To: DCPatriot
>Uh, they burned women as witches in Salem, Massachusetts at one point in OUR history. One generation or two is but a blink of an eye in terms of time and long-term successful results.

Not to be picky,
but they didn't burn witches.
They hanged them, crushed them,

or they died in jail.
And almost half of the dead
were men. Damn details . . .

8 posted on 04/24/2004 7:29:35 AM PDT by theFIRMbss
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To: theFIRMbss
Thanks for filling in the details.

Nevertheless, our country saw some pretty horrific deeds done in the name of religion too.

9 posted on 04/24/2004 7:36:07 AM PDT by DCPatriot
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To: Austin Willard Wright
Leave it to you to blame Bush/America for on-going cultural misogyny. As usual, you miss the point here. Austin, remind me never to count on you for anything that requires courage, determination and steadfastness.

Prairie
10 posted on 04/24/2004 7:40:56 AM PDT by prairiebreeze (Gorelick, Ben-Veniste, Kerrey, Roemer. All proud, card-carrying members of "America's Fifth Column".)
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To: prairiebreeze
I don't understand people who immolate themselves. There are so many more pleasant and reliable ways to die. Why is this method so prevalent in Asia??
11 posted on 04/24/2004 7:41:36 AM PDT by AntiGuv (When the countdown hits zero - something's gonna happen..)
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To: prairiebreeze
A religion of peace? I say a religion that must be wiped from the face of the earth!
12 posted on 04/24/2004 7:42:20 AM PDT by Camel Joe (Proud Uncle of a Fine Young Marine)
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To: AntiGuv
Can I hazard a guess that it is one last final dramatic "in-you-face" reaction to abuse? Or perhaps there is some spiritual connection to this method.

Maybe it's just cheap and available.

Prairie
13 posted on 04/24/2004 7:46:13 AM PDT by prairiebreeze (Gorelick, Ben-Veniste, Kerrey, Roemer. All proud, card-carrying members of "America's Fifth Column".)
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To: prairiebreeze
I have a suspicion this is where the 72 virgins come in. Countless numbers of young girls have committed suicide over the centuries or were killed by their husbands who claim if they can't have them in life they'll have them in death for eternity.
14 posted on 04/24/2004 7:47:08 AM PDT by mtbopfuyn
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To: DCPatriot
Um, no, there were no witch-burnings in this country. Hangings yes, burnings no.
15 posted on 04/24/2004 7:47:22 AM PDT by hellinahandcart
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To: hellinahandcart
Burnings...hangings....

Dead is dead!

16 posted on 04/24/2004 7:52:03 AM PDT by DCPatriot
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To: prairiebreeze
I made a specific point about the failure of nation building. Do you disagree?
17 posted on 04/24/2004 7:56:22 AM PDT by Austin Willard Wright
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To: prairiebreeze
This is so tragic. It at least sounds like the woman has a good father.

Stories like this prove that the dysfuntional nature of the Islamic culture is deeply rooted.

18 posted on 04/24/2004 7:58:56 AM PDT by TOUGH STOUGH (A vote for president Bush IS a vote for principle.)
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To: prairiebreeze
How MANY women,one wonders ?? 4 ? 5? A dozen ?

I'm reminded of some of that "anecdotal evidence" showing 1 in 5, or 1 in 4,or maybe 1 in 3 women are sexually abused every day by their spouses.
19 posted on 04/24/2004 8:00:09 AM PDT by genefromjersey (So little time - so many FLAMES to light !!)
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To: DCPatriot
>Dead is dead!

Yes, but the point is
you are also wrong to see
religion as the

driving issue in
the Salem witch trials. Review
the social issues.

And, ultimately,
it was Cotton Mather who
denounced evidence

from spirit sources.
Pop myths are entertaining,
they're not history.

20 posted on 04/24/2004 8:01:41 AM PDT by theFIRMbss
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