Post Facto Denial of Suicidal Intent in Suicide Attempts by Self-Burning in Kurdish Women

Introduction: A wave of suicides by self-burning in young to middle-aged women was recently observed by medical staff in the ethnically Kurdish region of Northern Iraq.

Materials and Method: The present study evaluated 15 female Kurdish patients (average age 26.7 years, SD=8.8) hospitalized for severe burns in that geographic region.

Results: The area of the afflicted body surface ranged from 17% to 100% (average at 49.4 %, SD=26.7). The severity of the burns was determined to be of 3rd degree in 11 of 12 patients for whom these ratings were available.

While medical staff rated the burns in 14 of the 15 women (93.3%) as self-inflicted, only two of these patients (13.3%) admitted that their burns were intentional.

Discussion: Perhaps these patients’ denial was an attempt to avoid social or religious sanctions because Islam considers suicide as a major sin. Suicidal immolation has been more extensively studied in the neighboring Iran where it was also observed more frequently in females. Self-immolations are certainly not unique to the Middle-East as shown by a meta-analytic review by Thombs and Bresnick on US patients.

Conclusion: Suicides by self-burning observed in this sample of Kurdish women were mostly of a very severe nature (3rd degree burns) and involved predominantly young married women.

Keywords: suicide, self-immolation, 3rd degree burns, denial