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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| Afghan Girls and Women Burning Themselves to Death in Despair |
| 2004-04-24 |
| Al-Guardian's way behind the curve on this story. It's been around for at least a month... .... Anecdotal evidence suggests several hundred young women are burning themselves to death every year in western Afghanistan. A government mission sent to investigate the problem in Herat, the biggest city in the country’s west, reported that at least 52 young, married, or soon-to-be married women had burned themselves to death in the city in recent months. The youngest was a 13-year-old bride-to-be. Mr Shah says he knows of more than 80 cases of self-immolation in nearby Farah province - where Mallali took her life - in the past two years. A niece of his was among the victims. "There is not a village in Farah where a young woman has not burned herself to death," he said. .... "In our culture, women have always burned themselves, because they have always been so badly treated," said Amina Safi Afzali of the Afghan Human Rights Commission. "But this phenomenon was never as prevalent as it is today." Behind the increase, says Ms Afzali, is a disillusionment felt by many educated Afghan women because the two years since the fall of the Taliban have brought precious little freedom. This is felt most among former refugees who returned from Iran and who had grown accustomed to a freer life there. Significantly most of the female suicides recorded in Herat, about 60 miles from the border with Iran, were educated women, including several nurses and teachers. "There are many more pressures on young Afghan women today because they have learned what freedom is from radio and television, but that is not what they have," Ms Afzali said. "In the past, every girl knew she belonged to her family, she existed only for her father and her husband: she knew she wasn’t free. Now, young girls know they should have rights, and they are prepared to burn themselves to show society that they do not have them yet." .... "Women in this country are in a very bad situation, with forced marriages, families selling their daughters to pay drug debts, women being beaten all the time," said Suraya Sobah Rang, the deputy women’s minister. "We have to change these things in our society. But what society wants, and what women want, are two different things." |
| Posted by:Mike Sylwester |
| #5 Taking a cue off RC, it's that or get acid splashed in their faces. |
| Posted by: Proud Lil Kuffar 2004-04-24 3:16:07 PM |
| #4 Or they talked to the wrong boy, or they refused to be married off to a cousin in exchange for a couple goats, or they told someone about their being abused, or... |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2004-04-24 1:17:17 PM |
| #3 Yeah, I'm with you Mike...makes you wonder. And when you're "freer in Iran," you know you got issues. Bet a lot of these are "cleansing" killings to clear the families' names b/c they cooperated with the infidels...I mean the U.S. |
| Posted by: BA 2004-04-24 1:06:17 PM |
| #2 I wish I had doubts. I also wish we were able to do more to lift the state of women there. Women's hearts and minds are the deciding factor in this war. Modern society is nothing without women and no one can expect to compete globally when half their population is prevented from contributing. |
| Posted by: joe 2004-04-24 1:03:41 PM |
| #1 ...They're burning themselves? Got my doubts on that one. Mike |
| Posted by: Mike Kozlowski 2004-04-24 12:43:42 PM |