http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=86076&d=17&m=8&y=2006
Thursday, 17, August, 2006 (23, Rajab, 1427)
Checking Suicide Among Women: What We Should Do
Maha Al-Hujailan, Arab News
Our culture has set different social norms for men and women, making one
enjoy an entirely different life than the other. In our society men have more
freedom than women. Women must be either contented with or forced to live a
life that is circled by forbidden things. Merciless families and unjust
husbands add to their suffering.
Most women live in pain and misery as a result of these social taboos and
they do not know where to go or who to meet to lessen their miseries or receive
moral and material support. As a result they confine to themselves and get a
feeling that a woman is the only person she can take revenge against. This
distracted feeling leads many women to commit suicide.
People may wonder about cases of suicide in our conservative Muslim
societies or any other religious society as all divine religions have
prohibited that action that draws eternal punishment. The Islamic culture we
have is often dominated by the culture of our families and tribes that fashions
our behavior since childhood.
In addition, our society suffers from a lack of affectionate and
humanitarian attachment among family members. Many of us go through mental and
social difficulties but when we look for a person to heed our problems with an
understanding and sympathetic mind we face instead rebuke and humiliation or an
indifferent attitude.
Such antipathy would only generate negative feelings and exacerbate the
feeling of depression and with the passage of time would develop into mental
problems such as uneasiness and paranoia. As women in our society spend most of
their time inside homes they are more likely to suffer from mental stress than
men. Some families exploit their weakness to oppress them and deny their rights.
For example, there are women who are forced to marry individuals without
their consent. Many women have been subjected to despicable treatment by their
families and husbands for reasons related to personality, children and salary.
Some others undergo miseries as a result of their husbands' drug addiction and
mental problems. In the absence of medical treatment and counseling these women
are likely to commit suicide as a way to run away from the painful realities of
their life.
Cases of suicide are not rare in our society. We have started reading a
lot of such reports in recent years. We don't know whether they were the result
of new social changes or wider media coverage. One report speaks of a
17-year-old girl in Taif who committed suicide after suffering from mental
ailment.
But the report did not give a reason for worsening her mental condition.
She took the gun of her father to end her life. It gave a message to her father
that he should take care of her mother and sisters.
Alarabiya.net published another report on Aug. 11 about two Saudi women
tortured by their families. They tried to end their lives by taking pills.
Fortunately doctors were able to treat them. But one of them ran away from
hospital after hearing that she will be returning to the family.
She is a divorced woman with less than 30 years old. She has a small
child but her former husband would not allow her to see the child. The second
woman, who is 25 years old, was a university student. She was treated badly by
her brother for daring to use part of her monthly stipend to subscribe to Emaar
Economic City and paying the bill of a dental clinic.
Okaz published another report on July 20 about a 24-year-old woman in
Balqarn. Before committing suicide she had written a note to her father that
she was aware that her action was prohibited in Islam but was forced to do it.
The same paper carried another report about a Taif girl committing suicide
after taking pills. An investigation is still under way on the case.
We cannot ignore these repeated incidents of suicide in different parts
of our country. A study must be conducted on girls and women opting for this
horrible method to run away from their social and family problems. I believe
that we have been negligent in providing necessary treatment and counseling to
women going through such difficult times.
Many of these oppressed women do not find someone to help them consult a
doctor or attain counseling as they alone will not be able to do it without the
support of family members. In our society women are not allowed to drive cars
or go out alone without the permission of their male guardians.
In such a situation I would like to suggest that the authorities
establish special agencies with toll-free lines to provide counseling to such
depressed men and women in order to discourage them from committing suicide.
We should also activate the role of social counselors at schools and
establish centers for psychological counseling at our colleges and universities
as young students, especially girls, require special care and guidance.
We should also organize seminars and other special programs to educate
women and girls to help them overcome their negative feelings, inject
self-confidence and develop a positive attitude toward life. I should commend
the efforts being made through radio and television programs. But some of these
programs are full of religious sermons and do not serve the purpose.
This again emphasizes the need for opening special agencies consisting of
psychologists and sociologists to help depressed men and women. I would like to
suggest that such agencies should provide their services free of charges and
should be manned by experts.
- Maha Al-Hujailan is a medical researcher at King Khaled University
Hospital in Riyadh.([EMAIL PROTECTED])
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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