Afghan govt launches campaign against self-immolation

Updated September 8, 2011 15:36:07

The Afghanistan government is trying to address the growing phenomenon of self-immolation by women, by launching a media campaign against the practice.

While suicide by burning is thought to have occurred throughout the country's history, experts say it's been rising in recent years.

The Afghan government says 22,000 burn cases were recorded at hospitals last year.

Women's welfare groups welcomed the campaign, but say the incidents of self-immolation could be reduced if Afghanistan's justice system was fairer to women.

Presenter: Alma Mistry
Speaker: Fabrizio Foschini, political analyst for the Afghanistan Analyst Network, Kabul; Selay Ghaffar, executive director of Humanitarian Assistance for the Women and Children of Afghanistan

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MISTRY: Afghan women's groups say self immolation is a sad part of life in Afghanistan. Young women often set fire to themselves using household fuel or cooking oil, in response to domestic violence or family disputes. Launching the awareness campaign, Afghanistan's acting health minister Dr Suray Dalil said that in the last year 22,000 burns cases were recorded in the country's hospitals. Of those, 2000 required in-patient treatment. Fabrizio Foschini is a political analyst with the Afghanistan Analyst Network, based in Kabul. He says the problem seems to be increasing.

FOSCHINI: They are possibly on the increase because of rising expectations among women and rising frustrations accordingly.

MISTRY: Mr Foschini says despite some gains since coalition troops invaded Afghanistan in 2001, the struggle for women's rights has brought about a backlash from conservative groups.

FOSCHINI: You have a lot of women getting jobs at least in the urban centres. At the same time there is some more radical reactions especially where insurgents or religiously conservative elements are very strong or radical against any presence of women in public offices institutions even armed forces.

MISTRY: The Afghan Government's campaign features advice on safety in the kitchen to try and prevent genuine accidents, but it also emphasises the horrific injuries self immolation leads to: victims who don't die can sustain burns to more than 50 percent of their bodies and face a painful recovery. But women's advocates say self immolation is a desperate response to a life of fear.

GHAFFAR: The reason is they are having such a life that they cannot tolerate anymore all this kind of violence. So I believe that the main reason is this that we have a strong culture of impunity that gives woman no hope and no choice to go and ask for justice.

MISTRY: Selay Ghaffar is the Executive Director of Humanitarian Assistance for the Women and Children of Afghanistan, an NGO which provides shelters, legal assistance and counselling to women and children who are victims of domestic violence. She says Afghan women urgently need services to deal with high rates of violence against women.

GHAFFAR: We believe that without providing services to these victims, to protect them reintegrate them back into society I think we would not feel that we did something for them.

MISTRY: The Afghan constitution, written after the fall of the Taliban in 2001, enshrines equal rights for men and women. But much of the country remains conservative when it comes to women's rights and marriages are often arranged without the consent of the bride. Political analyst Fabrizio Foschini says for some women who feel trapped in a traditional society, self-immolation is seen as the only way to express their frustration.

FOSCHINI: It may sound radical but you don't really have any other way to express your dissent and given the amount of violence and problems that the Afghan society is facing any let's say smaller gesture would probably not be effective. So I came upon a couple of instances where self immolation was practiced by a young girl just to try and skip a marriage which she wouldn't consent to with of course terrible consequences.

MISTRY: Selay Ghaffar is calling on the Afghan government to reform the Afghan justice system, which she says is undermined by corrupt officials and widespread gender discrimination.

GHAFFAR: As a government they might to much better. First they have to make the system the judiciary system strong enough in a sense to not having those having those people who themselves are perpetrators who they are responsible for all this crime and abuse in Afghanistan they should not be in the system anymore. There should be laws to protect women there should be services to protect these kinds of victims