WORDS OF WISDOM THE WIVES ARE AFGHAN ardent way out get from Enrica Garzilli Group" AM_AfPak "This article published Nov. 7 on The New York Times and dedicated the sad reality of Afghan women in Herat, where Italian Development Cooperation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, funded the construction of the hospital to which referenced in the text.
The article is Alissa Johannsen Rubin
The translation and adaptation of Francesca Vinciguerra
Herat, Afghanistan
Even the poorest families in Afghanistan have matches and fuel for cooking, a combination that makes life, but can also become a means to an awful way out of poverty, forced marriages , abuse and despair that are often the fate of Afghan women.
themselves on fire the night before Zada \u200b\u200bGul took his children to his sister's house for a family party. Everything seemed fine. Later it turned out that she had not bought a gift and that a relative had reproached for this, his son said Juma Gul.
Apparently this little situation was to make it collapse. Zama, who was then 45 years, mother of six children, and earn money by cleaning small houses, came to the hospital in Herat with burns on nearly 60% of body surface area. Survival is difficult, even with 40% of the healthy body.
" was burned from head to toe ." Remembers his son.
This hospital is the only medical center in Afghanistan that focuses specifically on victims of burns, common form of suicide in this region, because the tools to do so are readily available. From early October of this year 75 women arrived with burns - most self-inflicted, others who tried to appear as such - almost 30% more than in the past.
But the numbers tell less of the histories of patients.
Here is a source of shame to admit that there are problems within the family and mental illness are not often undiagnosed or untreated.
Hospital staff said Zada \u200b\u200bprobably suffered from depression. The choices for Afghan women is extremely limited. The family is their life. For them there is little chance of getting an education or to choose who will get married, but no chance to decide their role within the home. Their primary task is to serve her husband. Out of this world are marginalized.
" Runaway home you can be kidnapped or put in prison and sent home. So what will you ? "Asks Rachel Reid, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, which is interested in violence against women. Women who return home are often beaten or killed for honor killings, because the family fears that have passed with a man as long as they were not accompanied. Women and girls are still stoned to death. Those who burn and survive are condemned to a life of Cinderella, while their husbands marry other women, healthy women.
" Violence against Afghan women comes from everywhere: from his father, his brother, her husband, or father, the mother-in-law or sister-. "says Dr. Shafiqa Eanin, plastic surgeon to the hospital in Herat, which normally takes ten cases of women burned at a time .
The most gruesome murder cases of burns are disguised as suicide, say the doctors, nurses and those who deal with human rights.
" Right now we have two women here who have been burned by their husbands and mothers-.," Said Dr. Arif Jalali, the chief surgeon of the hospital.
The doctors cited recent cases in which women after being beaten by their husbands or their in-laws, have lost consciousness, woke up in hospital and found themselves pushed by burning it in the oven or on the stove.
For a very small number of women who survive the burns, and if that is inflicted by the sun, whether they were caused, the experience is a tragic step that helps to change lives. Some of them cooperate with lawyers recommended by the hospital and ask for a divorce. Others do not.
debased and shameless
Photography Lynsey Addario for The New York Times
Farzana, left the hospital in Herat with burns to his mother. She burned when her father pushed her to do so .
wife requested in 8 years - and married at 12 - Farzana sets himself on fire after his stepfather to diminish, saying that would have had the courage to do so. He was 17 and then abused by her husband and his family.
Farzana, feeling dejected by an act of defiance in the garden and goes over her daughter to her husband of nine months, why not see the mother burn. Then he pours the fuel for cooking.
" I felt so sad, I had so much pain in my heart, and I was so angry with my husband and his parents took the matches and gave me fire ."
That Farzana is a typical story of despair that lead to the harassment inflicted by the wives of their sons-in-law. The United Nations statistics indicate that at least 45% of Afghan women are married before the age of 18, a large percentage of first 16. Many girls are given in marriage as payment of debts, which condemns them to a life of servitude, and in most cases of abuse.
Farzana was a bright girl who dreamed of becoming a teacher, love poetry and the language of Dari. But he was betrothed to the son of the family who was being taken to find a wife for his brother and when he was 12 years her in-laws insisted that it was time to get married. Her future husband had just turned 14 years old.
"'s wedding day he hit me when I woke up and I yelled at ." Recounts " always favored his mother, and used bad words when he spoke to me . "
The beating went on for four years, then took Farzana's brother married a second wife, his contempt for parents husband. The abuse got worse. Prevented her from seeing her mother and her husband began to beat her more often.
" I thought to run away from home, but then I said to myself: what would happen to my family name ?" People say " No one has ever asked for a divorce, how could I be the first ? .
The doctors and nurses say that, especially in cases involving younger girls, the feeling of being trapped and the desire to dishonor their husbands under their control, their anger explodes.
This is the truth of Farzana.
" The thing that convinced me to fire me was the statement of my father: you do not have the courage to do it." Continue.
But he did, and when the flames were extinguished 58% percent of his body was burned. When a relative strength to push his body in the car, the husband says: " If anyone asks you, do not make my name. Say it has nothing to do. "
After 57 days in the hospital and continuous skin grafts, Farzana is back home with his mother and torn between family traditions and a sense that you need a new way of thinking.
daughter Farzana has grown by the family of her husband, mother and daughter are not allowed to see. Despite this, she says he can not go back into the house of her husband.
" I spent five years in that house with those people "says" my marriage was for others. Should never have been forced into a marriage as a child . "
Thought common
Because women are on fire rather than to other forms of suicide?
One reason is poverty, "says Dr. Jalali. Many women mistakenly think that death is instantaneous. Halima, 20 year old patient in the hospital in August, said he considered the idea of \u200b\u200bjumping off the roof, but was concerned able only to break a leg. If it were on fire instead "would be all over .
This type of suicide is more common in Herat in western Afghanistan and in other parts of the country. The proximity of the Iran perhaps can explain why. In Iran it is very common this type of suicide.
Unlike other women admitted in the hospital, Zada \u200b\u200bshowed no outward signs of depression before themselves on fire. His life, however, was difficult. Her husband is a sharecropper. During the day she was cleaning the homes of others and stay awake at night to clean his own, almost impossible to work in two shabby rooms of earth and bricks from the whipping winds of Herat, bringing a new layer of powder to each open port.
For the family, she had to provide everything, constantly. " Before you can only think they want something, you had me already procured. "says Juma Gul, his eldest son, 32 year old worker who earns about $ 140 a month. " sewed our clothes, so do not you think you have less than others. "
As she speaks, her two twin sisters are sitting next 10 years him holding a picture of their mother.
hospital at first Zada \u200b\u200bhad shown signs of recovering, and was encouraged Juma, unaware of what could be difficult to survive with such extensive burns. This is especially true in developing countries, said Dr. Robert Sheridan, principal of surgery at the Shriners Burn Hospital in Boston surgeon and trauma surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital.
The biggest risk is sepsis, often fatal infection begins the second week after burn, and it is difficult to stop, says Dr. Sheridan. Even the worst burns and infected patients can speak in the hour closest to their death, and this gives false hope to the relatives.
" She was getting better," insists his son.
But because the infection had penetrated, and the family did not have the money to the most powerful antibiotic that could provide even the smallest hope of survival. Juma Gul finally thought he could pick up the money by begging, but not before the infection spreads.
Two weeks after her mother was on fire, Juma was at her side when she stopped breathing.
