For More Afghan Women, Immolation Is Escape

[kskiska]

JALALABAD, Afghanistan — Waiflike, draped in a pale blue veil, Madina, 20, sits on her hospital bed, bandages covering the terrible, raw burns on her neck and chest. Her hands tremble. She picks nervously at the soles of her feet and confesses that three months earlier she set herself on fire with kerosene.

Beside her, on the next bed, her mother-in-law, Bibi Khanum, and her brother-in-law, Abdul Muhammad, 18, confirm her account but deny her reason, which Madina would explain only outside on a terrace, away from her husband's family. "All the time they beat me," she said. "They broke my arm. But what should I do? This was my home."

Accounts like Madina's are repeated across Afghanistan, doctors and human rights workers say. They are discovering more and more young women who have set themselves on fire, desperate to escape the cruelties of family life and harsh tribal traditions that show no sign of changing despite the end of Taliban rule and the dawn of democracy.

Doctors and nurses in Kabul and Jalalabad say they have seen more cases recently, partly because the population has been swollen by the return of two million refugees and because cases are being tracked for the first time by rights groups, hospitals and the government.

But the trauma and social upheaval of decades of war, poverty and illiteracy in Afghanistan have also intensified the traditional pressures on young women, they say.

more…
http://nytimes.com/2004/03/08/international/asia/08BURN.html?hp

[JohnOneillsMemory]

1. Heartbreaking. Do Americans know what isn't on TV? Real damn life. n/t

[burrowowl]

2. No

and they don't care.
And the RW fundies want Merikkka to go back to the domination of women.

[burrowowl]

3. Kick, Bump!

But, but, but Laura Bu$h said the Afghani women should be grateful to the U$! (sacrasm).

[pacifictiger]

4. too bad they're not

using part of that $200 million to help people instead of using for the lie spin.