An Afghan woman Gulsum 16, is seen at her bed during an interview with the Associated Press at ICRC hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan on Nov. 15, 2006. Blood dripped down the 16-year-old girl's face _ another beating by her drug addict husband. Weary of the punches and life, she ran to the kitchen, doused herself with gas from the lamp, and struck a match to set herself ablaze. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)
Musadeq Sadeq / AP
i never imagined it was in afghanistan. can you imagine how horrid it would have to be in order to WANT to kill yourself by fire? some as young as 9. 9???????? my goddess what these grrrls and women must have to endure.
More Afghan women turning to suicide by fire
Depserate to flee hardship, scores of Afghan women self-immolate annually
The Associated Press
Updated: 4:04 p.m. ET Nov 18, 2006
KABUL, Afghanistan - Blood dripped down the 16-year-old girl’s face after another beating by her drug addict husband. Worn down by life’s pain, she ran to the kitchen, doused herself with gas from a lamp and struck a match.
Desperate to escape domestic violence, forced marriage and hardship, scores of women across Afghanistan each year are committing suicide by fire. While some gains have been made since the fall of the Taliban five years ago, life remains bleak for many Afghan women in the conservative and violence-plagued country, and suicide is a common escape.
Young Gulsum survived to tell her story. Her pretty face and delicate feet were untouched by the flames, but beneath her red turtleneck sweater, floral skirt and white shawl, her skin is puffy and scarred.
More than a month after her attempt, her gnarled hands still bleed.
“It was my decision to die. I didn’t want to be like this, with my hands and body like this,” she said, sitting on a hospital bed in Kabul and hiding her deformed hands beneath her shawl.
An upward trendReliable statistics on self-immolation nationwide are difficult to gauge. In Herat province, where the practice has been most reported and publicized, there were 93 cases last year and 54 so far this year. More than 70 percent of these women die.
“It’s all over the country. ... The trend is upward,” said Ancil Adrian-Paul of Medica Mondiale, a nonprofit that supports women and girls in crisis zones.
The group has seen girls as young as 9 and women as old as 40 set themselves on fire. But many incidents remain hidden, Adrian-Paul said.
“A lot of self-immolation and suicide cases are not reported to police for religious reasons, for reasons of honor, shame, stigma. There is this collusion of silence,” Adrian-Paul said on the sidelines of a conference this week in Kabul on self-immolation. ..........
picture:
Musadeq Sadeq / AP
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