“If I threw myself from a building, I’d break an arm or a leg, but I wanted to die, that’s why I set myself on fire, so I would die instantly.”
Posted: February 8, 2012 Filed under: Women 18 Comments »
Forced into marriages with older men when they are as young as seven, Afghan women often choose self-immolation as the only means they have of escaping abusive husbands and in-laws. Whatever human rights gains Afghan women had achieved since the American invasion, now are disappearing as quickly as Barack Obama is turning back control of Afghanistan to the Taliban.
Self-immolation is considered taboo in their society, so one-third of women admitted to the Burns Unit in a hospital in Herat, Afghanistan, are forced to lie about how they became so badly burnt. The remaining two-thirds die, reports CNN’s Nick Paton.
One young woman, arms covered in bandages, was married off to her cousin when she was only 10 years old. Doctors say that after six years of abuse from her mother and sister-in-law, she became an opium addict.
In this case, self-immolation is seen as an act of protest — an apparent last result in fighting back against cruelty at home. ”She burned herself because of domestic violence,” says her counsellor Naeema Nikzaad.
It’s taken months for Atifah to admit what happened in private, but in public, she insists she’s just another victim of an accident in the kitchen.
The burns unit is full of similar stories — there have been almost 90 suspected cases of self-immolation in the last 10 months.
The woman in Bed 19 is another silent victim who also claims to have been burnt in a cooking accident.
“Seemingly she is saying I burned with the gas but when the patient comes to the emergency room you can smell the fuel,” says Dr Ghafar Abawar.
“Self-immolation is taboo in our society… The shame of it.”
The truth would bring shame on her family, and that could mean they kill her.
One explanation is that extreme domestic violence leaves many women so powerless that this shocking bid to die is the only way they can speak out about the brutality of their lives.
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this is disgusting and sad.
Congrats to the caliph in the White House, on another “victory” that will ensure the deaths of thousands, if not more~!
God, help these women find a way to escape this misery…not like this. Please, not like this.
Poor women. What they don’t realize is that quick and painless death is achievable by throwing oneself off the roof of a 3-storey building, closing the eyes and counting to five.
There is no quick and painless death with fire.
Susan, they probably don’t know this because few of them are educated.
No… the main problem is NOT economical problems – it is SHARI’AH law that comes from ISLAM!!!
BO and HAJI HILLARY know what’s best. They feel your pain.
Just in brief mohommedism sucks!
My heart aches for these victims of islam.
I have no words adequate to describe the utter contempt I feel for the wickedness and evil inherient in the death cult religion nor for the males who practice it.
Since they’re out to die anyway, it’s too bad they don’t first turn on their abuser and take a few of them along. What’s the worst that could happen?
I am convinced only libtarded women are truly Muslim. Most Muslimas are just afraid, and rightly so, to tell their owners to shove Islam up their allahs.
We should (1) allow only Muslimas to immigrate and (2) ban Islam in the West.
These women prove what is wrong with Islam: MISOGYNY.
What kind of hell are these women in to even contemplate setting themselves on fire? It’s horrendous.
If you really care about what is happening in Afghanistan, or think there is real change taking about try reading the Afghanreport.com website, the latest listing explains the true deception taking place under this usurper-n-thiefs policies, it ain’t purdy by any means. The good Col. basically is saying we have a liar acting like our C-i-C in that he is trying to decieve the American public about the supposed change taking place in this hellhole at the same time supporting the talib’s in their power quest.
thanks for the link. sometimes truth is hard to take but needs to be said.
mission accomplished obama! he has our guys burning bibles building mosques and rules of engagement that have killed more nato and usa soldiers in 3years than in the 7 years under bush. i thanks god that my son got out of the marine corps before obama became president. anyone who thinks obama is a christians needs to remove their heads from that space between their legs.
And then we’ve got the moon-faced chubby fat chick converts on You Tube telling us how grand islam is. I wonder if they are helping their adopted “sister.”
…oh, never mind…
No question about it; we can expect to see more and more of this since our “benevolent and wise” ASSLIFTER-in-CHIEF has decided to pull the “imperialist” American troops out of Afghanistan! Hail to the ASSLIFTER-in-CHIEF who has done it once again, just when we’re thinking “What can he do to f— things up anymore than he has already?!”
Sometimes words are not enough.
It is then that tears suffice.