BROKEN LIVES

Paula Bronstein

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Panwasha,20, screams in pain as her burned skin is cleaned at the Herat hospital burn unit after her successful skin graft operation on November 17,2006 in Herat, Afghanistan. Afghan women turn to self-immolation as a way to commit suicide,choosing this method turns their life into a living hell. There is an Afghan proverb: ' Your bones belong to your family but your muscles belong to your husband'. The problems facing women in Afghanistan are complex and are closely linked to their subordinate position in the Afghan society where conservative Islamic laws and traditions dictate what a woman is allowed to do in a male dominated world. Forced marriages, domestic violence, poverty and lack of access to education are the main reasons for suicide. Bibijan mourns the death of her second daughter, Guljan,18, on November 14,2006. She died from self-immolation yesterday at the Herat Regional hospital Burn unit with burns over 65% of her body in Herat, Afghanistan. Bibijan lost her 15 year old daughter last year to self-burning also and has 8 children left.

Paula Bronstein, "BROKEN LIVES," in POYi Archive, Item #46048, http://archive.poy.org/items/show/46048 (accessed November 22, 2024).