oneplanetmikey

Over the years I have become somewhat inured to television reports of tragedy.  However, a Channel 4 report broadcast on the ABC’s Four Corners programme last night had me hiding under the doona.  It reported on the status of women in Afghanistan. 

The woman pictured above is Gulbar.  She was set alight by her husband.  Below is a photograph of Pari Gul.  She self-immolated in July 2007.  Burning women are common in Afghanistan. 

Figures suggest that at least 250 Afghan women have suicided by self burning in the past six months.  The real figure is higher as only the women taken to hospital have been counted.  The rest are quietly buried by the men the women were trying to escape from. 

Even hospital admission offers no release from their pain as there is not enough morphine to alleviate their suffering.  I find this extraordinary; in a country that produces most of the world’s heroin, these women are left to fester and die. 

What must their lives be like for them to do this?

An Afghan woman in the Channel 4 doco said that they did it to highlight their suffering. 

What it does highlight is the moral culpability of men in allowing such brutality. 

For more information of the status of women oin Afghanistan and how you can help please visit RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of Women in Afghanistan http://www.rawa.org/index.php.