PAN, January 30, 2008

Young Afghan woman tries self immolation

Reports from Herat, in western Afghanistan, show about 90 women set fire to themselves last year

By Abdul Mueed Hashmi

JALALABAD: A dejected young Afghan woman having a domestic dispute with her husband tried to take her life in Mehtarlam High Court on Wednesday, court officials said.

( http://www.rawa.org/self_immolation/index.htm )
25 year old young woman sprayed petroleum on her body and set herself ablaze in Laghman High Court due to having domestic dispute with her husband. Photo: PAJHWOK/Abdul Moheed Hashimi

Spokesman for Laghman governor Abdul Wakil Attak told Pajhwok Afghan News an Afghan woman named 'Pukhtana' sprayed petroleum on her body and set herself ablaze Wednesday morning.

"Pukhtana, aged 25 had a domestic dispute with her husband and was in the court for hearing," he added.

Abdul Kabir, an official of the court said before her turn of hearing in the court Pakhtana tried to take her life however he said they put off the fire and shifted the lady to a nearby hospital.

Doctors in the hospital stated the condition of Pukhtana as stable.

Despite advances in women's rights since the fall in 2001 of the Taliban regime that barred education and employment for females, reports suggest that at least one out of three Afghan women has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused. The abuser is usually a family member or someone she knows. Rarely is anyone prosecuted or even reprimanded.

Reports from Herat, in western Afghanistan, show about 90 women set fire to themselves last year there and more than 70 percent died. Afghanistan's poor health system can do little for the badly burnt.

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