Afghan Women Set Fire to Themselves

Recently in Afghanistan, the trend of women setting themselves on fire to escape abusive or unhappy marriages has been gaining popularity. This trend has been increasing particularly in Herat, a large city in Afghanistan. While the next largest city has six beds for burn victims, Herat has nine times that many, all of which are usually full with overflow. The popularity of self-immolation has grown so much that these incidents have doubled in the past year. Many of the women who live through their experiences end up back with their husbands because they don't have anywhere else to go. Herat's first female chief prosecutor is trying to change long held traditions of women suffering silently from abuse at their husbands hand by trying to make them accountable through the law. Although this is a huge step, self- immolation is still on the rise.

Courtney Darnell

http://afghanistan.blogs.cnn.com/2010/11/24/desperate-women-burn-themselves/?npt=NP1