Five Iranian Girls burn themselves as sign of political protest

Iranmania ^ | 2/23/03 | Iranmania

[freedom44]

TEHRAN, Feb 23 (AFP) - Five Iranian girls from different villages around the southern city of Shiraz burned themselves to death last week because their families refused to let them work, the conservative daily Jomhoury-e-Eslami reported on Sunday.

All the girls, aged between 14 and 23, died in hospital after setting themselves alight, the paper said, quoting a social worker as saying they were suffering from cultural and economic deprivation.

Iranian women in the smaller towns and villages where age-old social and religious customs are stronger enjoy less freedom than those in the larger cities.

Half the population is aged under 30, putting cultural and religious restrictions under severe pressure.

[Timesink]

I can't even imagine the kind of dispair that would drive you to something like that.

I believe the word you're looking for is "malaise."

[null and void]

However, good fortune was with me in that I wasn't mentally unstable, so the option of self-immolation never crossed my mind as a method of 'protesting' his 'oppressive, cultural' edict.

You had hope that you could move out from under his thumb.

Imagine not having any hope.

Imagine years of not having any hope.

While the incident is tragic, it's a real sweep to attribute it to the country's 'oppression'.

Five separate incidents in five separate villages is not "an incident". It's a plague.

[null and void]

Actually, the N.A.G.S. only care about golf....

I think that has something to do with hitting little white balls with clubs...

[null and void]

Damn indeed.

My prayers go out to them.

[Sofa King]

"I HIGHLY doubt it was because they were 'not allowed to work'."

They were essentially being told "you may have no life other than being a housewife." This would be far from the first time someone has died for the cause of freedom.

[DontMessWithMyCountry]

Still, you're not thinking. It probably has nothing to do with not being 'allowed to work'. Okay. What is striking is that this the source for this article is TYPICALLY regarded on FreeRepublic as incredibly skewed in its opinion of its reports of anything that does not 'fit' our own political agenda, but when the topic, itself, (as in this instance) DOES fulfill one's PERSONAL agenda, all of a sudden, there is ZERO effort to CRITICALLY review this article.

If you can actually believe, for ONE second, that these girls were NOT emotionally disturbed (REGARDLESS of what drove them to that point), then there's really no point in continuing a discussion. Have you BOTHERED to consider that the girls were RAPED by their FAMILY members?? OR that they were RAPED by SOMEONE else, and that in the CULTURE of that part of the world, that the BLAME is placed squarely on the VICTIM?! Have you even considered that maybe their own FAMILIES told them to take that path...to spare the FAMILY's 'good name'?? duh! NOT being able to work would NOT drive a GIRL to suicide.

[Sofa King]

" This is so tragic! Islam suppresses women's rights and devalues them as human beings. Where are the NOW hags?"

You're joking, right? There are FAR too many unborn babies not being killed for NOW to waste their time on this stuff.

[rintense]

Half the population is aged under 30, putting cultural and religious restrictions under severe pressure.

The primary reason there will be a revolution in Iran as soon as Iraq falls.

[null and void]

It probably has nothing to do with not being 'allowed to work'.

I think that not being allowed to work is a small part of it. A trigger event, a place to focus the rage or blame.

Have you ever been on the ragged edge of suicide? I have. It takes a lot more than just one event, one thwarted goal, one shattered shred of hope.

NOT being able to work would NOT drive a GIRL to suicide.

Certainly not my ex...

[AZLiberty]

My grandmother left Hungary in 1925 because her father wouldn't let her work, even though they had been impoverished by political events, and even though she had graduated #1 in her Gymnasium, or high school.

She didn't even write home. My wife and I took her back to Timisoara, now in Romania, in the late '70s. Of her family of 7, only two others were still alive, a sister living in a miserable multistory tenement building, and a brother living with his children. My grandmother was so proud of her own full life. Nearly 80 years old, she was still living independently in her own house and driving her own car.

All of her relatives wanted us to take (and leave) pictures of their children with our Polaroid camera, because they didn't have access to color film. I'm glad we went when we did, because things got much worse when Ceaucescu took charge.

[Doctor Stochastic]

The Buddhist Monks used to do this to protest US involvement in Vietnam. (The North Vietnamese provided the same services to the Monks, albeit somewhat later.)

[Eric in the Ozarks]

No question there's more to it that being allowed to work. The reporter probably picked this issue out of many...

[knighthawk]

Unbelievable.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I don't think any other TV pictures from the Viet Nam era had a greater impact than the monks lighting themselves on fire.

[Dixie republican]

That's terrible! I wish the U.S. would tell them to "Hang On." (and mean it).