Tongues of Fire: Women's Suicide and Self-Injury by Burns in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq

Abstract

Self‐burning and self‐immolation are forms of self‐harm found across the Eastern Mediterranean region and South and Central Asia. The majority of those choosing these methods of self‐harm are young women. Using data from 100 young female survivors of suicidal attempts in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, this article analyses the phenomenon in the context of a life‐course progression arguing that the period around first marriage is a time of particular trauma to women. We suggest that self‐burning should be understood as a communicative act with an indigenous semiology which functions as an expression of subordinated agency within a male‐dominated society, in which marriage is a major source of conflict between generations and genders.

Honour based abuse: the response by professionals to vulnerable adult investigations

“…"refusing treatment and all medical appointments" (case 46) Professionals accepted that the victim, by choice, "stopped taking her medication" (case 46), without considering whether this could be her way of 'protesting' to the marriage, as explored by Rasool and Payton (2014) concerning self-harming and suicidal victims. Alternatively, the family may have denied the victim medication, in order to make her more compliant; evident in a US study, in which caregivers coercively used medication both to sedate and to withhold from vulnerable adults with disabilities, as a form of controlling punishment (Erwin, 2000).…”

Variation in the Incidence of Self-Immolation According To Culture and Income Level: A Literature Review

“…In low-income countries, victims are typically young women or female adolescents [7,24,[35][36][37][38].…”

“…Emotional dysregulation is related to issues, such as break-ups, infidelity, or spousal violence [11,29,32,33,35,37,38]. Motives such as social isolation are also described [18,27].…”

“…In low-income countries, we identified arranged marriages, spousal violence and political reasons as the motives [20,21,37,38,53].…”

“…Home is the main location for immolation, described in 50 to 65% of the cases [8,17,28,29,[31][32][33]38]. Some psychopathological characteristics may influence this choice of location.…”