Desperate Afghan Women Opt for Fiery Suicides

Reuters ^ | April 23, 2004 | David Brunnstrom

[AntiGuv]

Well, I hope she at least had the sense to burn his house down while she was at it..

Jumping off a cliff or a minaret or whatever is pretty cheap too. I just think the whole immolation thing that seems common in Asia is a bit odd.

I understand though what desperation many of these women must face.

[Rennes Templar]

The point is you don't build a nation in a few months.

[Milligan]

Yep, Blame Bush. Blame Bush for all the ills in the world all created by someone else. We need more people like Austin who believe in world peace without a price. Keep your blinder's on tight, Austin.

[hellinahandcart]

Oops, should have read further down before posting. Sorry.

Anyway, I see your underlying point but there's something important you're leaving out (besides the fact of having to go back in time a couple hundred years to find an equivalent). Witch trials went on for a long time in Europe. By comparison, they ended here almost as soon as they began, when people began to notice that the accusers had reasons other than religious ones for their accusations, and they felt FREE to point that out. What's more, they were actually heard. What were the chances of being "heard" in Europe at that time, if you weren't a noble or a landowner?

By the end of the witch-trial period, laws had been passed disallowing "spirit evidence" against defendants in court.

Abuses happen everywhere, but a rights-based culture tends to self-correct a lot faster.

[DCPatriot]

Point taken....thanks.

[AntiGuv]

While your point is worth making, this isn't a very good context to make it in. Witch trials in Europe were winding down by that time and ended a generation or so afterward. In fact, Salem was notable for being one of the last major witch trials in Western civilization. Moreover, Puritan Massachusetts wasn't any kind of "rights based" culture..

[jocon307]

"There are so many more pleasant and reliable ways to die."

Yes, I was thinking that too. It must be some kind of "send a message" thing. Otherwise why didn't this woman just wait and get hold of hubby's gun and blow her brains out?

Sorry to sound cynical, but that is the question I have. Or how about running away from home? I think if you've got the nerve to set your self on fire you'd have the nerve to pick up and flee.

I know, I'm heartless.

[TC Rider]

This is sad, but let's apply some Brady/VPC logic to this problem.

The best solution is to simply ban petrol and the suicides will end.

[nmh]

They should have no shortage of suicide bombers.

Of course this is the religion of peace ... .

[nmh]

Is that the real reason why they wear cover-all burqas?

[prairiebreeze]

Does your logic extend to Japan, or post-WW II Germany?

Prairie

[Solamente]

http://afghanwomensmission.org/index.php

[Democratshavenobrains]

Funny how the women of Salem were 100 times more free and respected than most Muslim women nowadays.

[hellinahandcart]

Very good summary at that link.

[RikaStrom]

Uh, they burned women as witches in Salem, Massachusetts at one point in OUR history.

Actually, the witches in Salem were hung, not burned...

[hellinahandcart]

Witch trials in Europe were winding down by that time and ended a generation or so afterward.

Wow...a generation in Europe versus a year and a half in Massachusetts. Now, what was it you were saying about context?

Moreover, Puritan Massachusetts wasn't any kind of "rights based" culture..

Compared to what they left, it was. They were free to order their own society in the way they choose, rigid as it might look to us today. Others were free to leave if they didn't like it. Others were rather forcefully told they might feel "freer" elsewhere, that's how we got Rhode Island.

Not a bad state of affairs in the rights department, considering it was over three hundred years ago.

[fella]

I don't understand people who immolate themselves. There are so many more pleasant and reliable ways to die. Why is this method so prevalent in Asia??

It's an Asian thing, you wouldn't understand.

[FastCoyote]

Gee, next time I am told how oppresive American men are, I have a response.

[Robert A Cook PE]

And the Salem church authorities stopped the abuses (on their own!) and stopped the courts trials, and apologized.

Hmmmmmmn.

Something the Islamic leaders have yet to do.... After some 1200 years of oppression and aggression.

[hellinahandcart]

My hair's still standing on end from this one:

At the hangings, the Rev. Nicholas Noyes asked Sarah Good to confess. "I am no more a witch than you are a wizard, and if you take away my life God will give you blood to drink." was her reply to him. Twenty-five years later, the Rev. Nicholas Noyes died of a hemorrhage, choking on his own blood.