Continued Self Execution

The Alarming Suicide Rate

in Women of Ghizar District

Suicides or what!! No body knows but at least a dozen women have lost their lives in Ghizar District of the northern areas of Pakistan. Just today I read in a local urdu daily that two married young women jumped into the Yasin river to culminate their lives. "A married young women was hit on the head with and axe and then here dead body thrown into the Ghizar river in Yasin valley", says amazed Ali Khan,my class mate and a resident of Yasin. Khan is worried about the scenario and when asked, he mentions a gathering that had been arranged by the Aga Khan Education Services Pakistan to discourage this mode of ending life. AKES might have organized the seminar but the effect seems to be nowhere because more and more young and old women continue to plunge into the rivers or just drink or eat poison.

This is a matter of great concern for all the northern areas. Being a matter of human life no stone shall be left untrained while probing into the reality of the issue. There is something terribly wrong with the society of Ghizar. Committing suicide seems to have been accepted as a way to end the much loved and precious life.

A general analysis of such cases would show that most of the women committing suicide have at least one time or the other been physically tortured and have remained upset for quite a long time. Amjad, my primary source, says that most of the suicders are married and because they can't adjust themselves to the new environment and attitude they are exposed to, they finish their lives. This argument seems to be quite assuring because till date, infant or at least young marriage is still encouraged in that society. There is yet another dilemma, the girls are mostly more educated than boys and thus they can't just keep with their mostly arranged marriages. "The suicide mania is quadrapled and the desire for seeking death increases manifolds specially when the in-laws start showing their "colors", says Amjad.

There have been cases when unmarried young girls committed suicide after haven being forced to go with someone terribly elder to them. A young couple, supposedly, committed suicide by jumping into a glaciated stream, leaving a letter and their cloth behind. The boy and girl,reportedly, were in love with each other. And the suiced, as ususal, was committed when the parents of the girl did not allow her to marry the man of her choice.

Whatever be the reasons, the consequences are horrible. These suicides apparently are in revolt to the tyrannical attributes of the rural society. The patriarchal society, like all other parts of the northern areas curbs chances of development for women, forcing them to live like cattle.

There, nevertheless, is a change as more and more women are being enrolled in schools and colleges and quite a huge number of them even make it to universities. These educated females are justified when they demand their due rights. The society has educated them but has not been able to prepare itself for the new trends that would inevitably set into the otherwise undisturbed mountain society. There is an increasing need for allowing women to play active role in the society and they shall not be exposed to unnecessary restrictions.

Parents need to know that there is nothing more precious than life itself. And if life is gone, everything including prestige and honor are lost. Women are also like us, having wishes and dreams and the society shall not hinder their ways. At the same time the women need to abandon the feelings of finishing their lives. They have the right to revolt and they can do that while being a part of this world. I feel that it is the right time the human rights organizations and other related NGOs and governed organizations to step into the arena and help that society.