Self-immolation: the dark secret of Iraqi Kurdish women

[Barrett808]

Source: AFP

Self-immolation: the dark secret of Iraqi Kurdish women
by Jennie Matthew

SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq (AFP) - Heshw Mohammed tried to kill herself three times when her father would not let her marry the man she loved, swallowing tablets and surviving only because her stomach was pumped.

Beautiful, timid and abused, she exemplifies what campaigners and medics warn is a disturbing increase in women killing themselves -- largely by self-immolation -- in northern Iraq's relatively peaceful Kurdish provinces.

"My father forced me to marry someone else. We were engaged just 15 days, during which I tried three times to commit suicide," says Heshw, her eyes cast down, her fingers clenching and unclenching.

Now aged 20, she has been living in a women's shelter in the city of Sulaimaniyah for two years, virtually shut off from the world, with no psychologist and nothing to fill her time.

"My father would kill me if I went home. He killed my boyfriend. I don't have any hope for the future. I'm just sitting here, waiting," she says, refusing refreshment, her expressionless voice barely more than a whisper.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070823/wl_mideast_afp/iraqkurdswomensuicide

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

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[bdamomma]

2. so sad, but this unfortunately still happens.

[hedgehog]

3. Quite seriously, is suicide becoming a problem in Islamic countries?

Suicide bombers used to be rare, but now they seem to be a dime a dozen. Or is that just a false impression? Once suicide enters a culture, it's a hard thing to eliminate.

[bleedingheart]

4. and guess what the men probably don't give a shit...cuz they will find another poor woman to marry

to take their place.

It would be better to die trying to make it better for your sisters then to kill yourself alone...and burning oneself!!!! I have worked in burn units...probably the most painful and horrific way to kill yourself...especially if you don't die immediately...

I feel awful for these women, but their anger and frustration is turned on themselves..I really can't say what the right thing for them to do would be...

but if you are seriously against marrying a man you don't love...
and you know that if you refuse ...your own family might kill you...
then rather than kill myself...
I would protest or do something to send a message to try and unite other women like me...
even if it would mean my death...but at least I would die fighting the system...

However...I am not them...I haven't been raised to think my entire worth is based on who my family is, my virginity, and my ability to cook or clean...oh and if I can breed...so for them....uneducated and raised in such a shitty world..their perspective is different.

this just makes me so sad...

[nealmhughes]

5. The other side of emancipated Kurdistan -- not the one of unveiled coeds changing classes in Arbil

amidst the fountains and manicured lawns of the university. . . this is the tribal Kurdistan of arranged marriages, blood feuds, a society that never underwent an Enlightenment. So sad that a nation with such promise still has elements deep within society that are intransient in matters familial.