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Taliban Restrictions Drive Women To Suicide |
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In addition to the thousands of adversities experienced by Afghans, the crushing atrocities committed by the Taliban have turned Afghanistan into a living hell for women. The ongoing catastrophe of women's human rights violations and the brutal civil war have drafted great masses of women into beggary and prostitution. The intolerable conditions which exist for women have resulted in increased suicides in the form of self-immolation all across the country, but especially in western Afghanistan. |
RAWA has prepared reports on some of the self-immolations committed by Afghan women and girls. These include the story of 20-year-old Laida Omid, daughter of Hidar Karim, who was a well-educated and talented girl. On 24 April 2000, she burned herself with petrol as a way out of all her miseries that had twisted her for years. She was at her home located in Dr. Abdul Rizzaq road, near the Mehria High School in Herat. Her family took her to the hospital in Herat, but the facility was lacking a physician and proper medical equipment. She was then taken to Iran, but it was too late to save Laila from her self-inflicted burns.
One of Laida Omid's many poems, "Throne Race, Stop It," is a sample of her deep hatred of the fundamentalists destroying her country, her people and her spirit.
Throne Race, Stop It by Laida Omid, 18 April 1994
Stare at the sky, On the same day, another Afghan woman, the bride of headmaster Noor Ahmed, burned herself by slashing petrol on her body at the Wool Company Street in Herat. The young bride's life was saved by her family, but she remains badly burned. It is a reminder of the horrors which led her to self-immolation. |