ABUSIVE Afghan Husbands Want This Woman DEAD

[Segami]

Maria Bashir's house has been bombed; her children threatened with murder. Meet the prosecutor risking everything for justice

" A 22-YEAR-OLD WOMAN lies naked on a tile platform. Ninety percent of her body is burned—her skin mottled brown and in places torn open, exposing the white tissue of seared muscle. Nurses bathe her with saline solution. An IV tube drips fluid into her right foot, one of the few unburned places on her body. The odor of her flesh mixes with lingering traces of the cooking fuel she doused herself with.


Shayma Amini, 33, is the head nurse in Herat Regional Hospital's burn unit, where women from all over western Afghanistan are brought to be treated after self-immolation. A stout woman with a gentle, dutiful gaze, Amini begins wrapping the woman's body in elastic bandages. Bits of her blackened clothing flit across the floor, spun by the shifting feet of the nurses.


The previous evening, the woman's father had called her a slut, accusing her of sleeping with a man out of wedlock. He had taken her to a doctor who confirmed his suspicion. Now she would never find a husband. She was worthless to her family. Throughout the night, the woman fumed. In the morning, she stormed upstairs, locked the door behind her, and set herself ablaze. She burned for 20 minutes before her father finally beat down the door. She had not wanted to burn so badly, she told the doctors. I'll behave better. Let me live. Don't send the case to the police. It is not my father's fault.


When Amini finishes encasing her in bandages, the woman looks mummified. The nurses lift her to a gurney and cover her with a piece of green cloth. The aroma of kerosene trails them out of the emergency room and down the hall to the burn ward. Amini guesses she's seen at least a thousand self-immolation cases since she started at the hospital 13 years ago—almost all of them young women seeking to escape abusive marriages (PDF) or the prospect of being turned out onto the streets by men who no longer want them. Women have been beaten—or starved, as a controversial 2009 law (PDF) allows some angry husbands to do. Seeing no escape, they choose to engulf themselves in flames.


cont'


http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/01/self-immolation-afghanistan-maria-bashir-herat


.

[virgogal]

1. God almighty,the poor souls.

[spanone]

2. thank goodness we're the superior species

:sarcasm:

[Maru Kitteh]

3. K & R :-(

[emilyg]

4. No words.

[social_critic]

5. So what is the intent here, support the Afghan war?

Tell us, is this meant to make us foam at the mouth and continue to support a losing war in Afghanistan? I COULD bring up discussions and pictures of the women and children our soldiers are maiming as well. What's the score? I bet our soldiers have burned, maimed, and killed more women and children than these wacko husbands have.

[Mojeoux]

6. I hate the War and we are obviously NOT helping!!

We are no examples to them. Our soldiers are trained to do brutal and deadly things.
We HAVE to get out and try to gain back some of the integrity ingrained in our constitution.

The same Women's groups who were there before 9-11, begging Washington to cut off aid to the Taliban, will still be there. America should be listening to them by now!!!

We should be putting the war funds into funds to help women like this lady here.