Tragedy of women's self-immolation in Iran and developing communities: a review

Abstract

Committing Suicide is an awful way to die as well as a historical psycho-social problem of human community worldwide. Suicide is an action deliberately initiated and performed by a person with complete awareness of its fatal outcome, prevalence of which is very rare in developed countries, but it is reported with more frequency in Baltic region, Africa (including Egypt), The Middle East (including Iran), The Far East, particularly India and Vietnam. Its rate has ranged from10 per 100,000 people/year in Egypt, and up to 35 per 100,000 people/year in Baltic region (including Lithuania, Finland, and Russia). Categorically Iran is the 93th country of the world in terms of suicide Rate, but self immolation in the reported suicides is very high. There are many different approaches of suicides based on culture, symbols, religion, geographical regions, genders and socioeconomic factors. Self-inflicted burn or self immolation is a common suicidal method. According to the American Burn Association, self- immolation is placed in burn injury category that required long-term treatment as well as social and emotional rehabilitations. Deliberative burn injuries are classified into self- inflicted (self-immolation) or else-inflicted burn (assault burn). In this review study, we try to focus on self- inflicted burn or self- immolation as the most dramatic and violent method of suicide. The present review article was aimed to assess the epidemiology of self immolation phenomenon and its associated factors as a worldwide problem, particularly in Iran and other developing communities. The main victims of this awful way of death are women who are considered the most vulnerable group in such societies.

Keywords: Iran; developing communities; self-immolation; suicide; women.