Self-immolation – fleeing violence

medica mondiale presents the first systematic study of suicides among Afghan women

A patient after attempted self-immolation in Kabul’s hospital.

Several hundred women kill themselves in Afghanistan every year. More precise figures are not available, as these incidents are mostly kept quiet. Information about the causes and the extent of this phenomenon is now available for the first time. This week at a controversial conference medica mondiale presented a study on the topic.

Introductory comments

Self-immolation in Afghanistan – the situation

Afghanistan is experiencing a post-war conflict phase, in which women and girls are attempting to give a new shape to their lives after decades of oppression and terror. They take part in training courses whenever possible, some find work and a few hold official positions. Generally however the desolate situation of women, characterised by oppression and violence, has not improved. This is demonstrated in the shockingly high prevalence of suicides, particularly amongst young women. Self-immolation is the most frequent method employed.

Although the Afghan Human Rights Commission has known about the problem and kept statistics on it for years, scarcely any reliable data were available for the whole of Afghanistan, as is still the case today. Neither the police nor the government have data, as hospitals record only the total number of burns victims and do not distinguish in terms of the causes. Human rights organisations have only been able to draw up estimates. As a result, there have been widely differing estimates of the scope of the problem (c.f. Statistics).

Self-immolation is very frequently employed by young women and girls as a way of escaping violence in their families – even if this means death. On the basis of our overall programme since 2002, medica mondiale has studied this horrific and previously little-examined phenomenon and come to the following (framework) conclusions:

• Suicide occurs in all provinces, amongst both men and women (hanging, shooting, drowning in wells or rivers, taking rat poison or tablets, poisoning etc.).
• Self-immolation is the most common method in the province, with especially frequent occurrences in the west in the Herat area.
• Self-immolation is particularly frequent among women and girls in the 10-40 age group, although men also self-immolate.
• Decisive factors amongst women and girls include profound psychological and physical violence (beatings, psychological torture, etc.) over extended periods of time, the still widespread custom of families exchanging girls as brides, for example in order to obtain money or goods, or to “pay off” debts or crimes, marriages of couples without their consent etc.
   
• All these practices, which are rooted in archaic traditions and increasingly go hand-in-hand with rising levels of general poverty since the end of the war, are manifestations of the use of violence against the women and girls concerned and determine how they live their lives.
• 85 per cent of the women who die as a result of their burns die because they are not taken to hospital, or are taken there too late, or because the hospitals have neither the medicines they need, nor skilled specialist healthcare staff.
   
• An extreme social taboo surrounds self-immolation and it is kept quiet as much as possible, in order to spare the family of the victim from the “shame”. For survivors that means social isolation and exclusion.
  

Methodology and basis of the study

In 2004 and 2005 medica mondiale staff carried out random sample research for a preliminary study. As a result of this research, medica decided to carry out a concentrated study from March to September 2006 with two teams of medica mondiale staff. They interviewed survivors in Herat und Farah (West Afghanistan), Mazar-i-Sharif (North Afghanistan), Ghazni (South Afghanistan) and Jalalabad (East Afghanistan). A total of 100 women and their families were included in the survey. They were selected on the basis of recommendations from the Afghan Human Rights Commission, hospitals in the area and the Afghan doctors working for medica mondiale in the clinics. The group selected was intended to be representative – even if the situation in Afghanistan meant after all that it was not as representative as strict Western standards would demand.

The recent interviews aimed to shed light on the following questions:

• Why do women and girls take this drastic step?
• How many burns victims are cases of self-immolation?
• How many girls and women are affected?
• Self-immolations are frequent in the Herat region. Why?
• How can preventive action be taken?
• Who could help with preventive action?

Results
An eyewitness report
Recommendations and proposed measures
Statistics on self-immolations in Afghanistan from 2002 to 2005

Printout without charge – specimen copy requested. We would be pleased with your coverage.

Advanced inquiries and arrangement of interviews:
medica mondiale e.V.
Stephani Streloke
(Press and Public Relations)
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50670 Köln/Cologne (Germany)
Tel.: +49/221-93 18 98-0/-25
Fax: +49/221-93 18 98-1

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