Hasht-E Subh According to the collected statistics, in the last 6 months, more than 49 citizens of the country have committed suicide for various reasons. These people, who were in different age groups, committed suicide in 20 provinces. Among them, 24 women, including 15 young girls and two teenage girls, are also included. According to the available statistics, 25 men, including 12 young boys and 5 teenage boys, committed suicide in the first half of the solar year (Afghanistan’s calendar system).
The most common causes of these suicides have been recorded as poverty, unemployment, family violence, the accusation of adultery, and mental illnesses. Citizens also call the bad economic situation, family violence, and forced marriages as the main reasons for these harsh incidents. They blame the Taliban for the self-inflicted deaths of young people, teenagers, and adults; Because according to them, since the return of, this group to power, many people have lost their jobs and life has become more limited for women.
Hasht-e Subh Daily has compiled the statistics based on the events, which were reflected in the media. Due to the restrictions imposed by the Taliban and the prevention of some other events from the media, the number of victims of suicide events is likely much higher.
Considering the situation of the country, the return of the Taliban to power has made the living conditions in Afghanistan more complicated. The increase in poverty, restrictions on women’s freedom, increase in mental illnesses, and most importantly, the lack of hope to continue living has caused the rate of self-inflicted deaths to increase. The collected statistics show that in some cases, Afghanistan witnessed several suicides in one day. In one of the cases that happened in the August of the current year, a woman, a young boy, a man, a girl, and a teenage boy in four provinces of the country ended their lives in one day.
Mohammad Naeem was a shopkeeper who hanged himself on September 16th in the city of Lashkargah, the center of Helmand province. Sources in this province told the media that this person had a retail store in the “Barak” market for a long time and the main motive of his suicide has not yet been determined.
40-year-old Ayesha, who was a mother of seven children, hanged herself in Faryab province on September 10th. Sources in this province say that this woman committed suicide at her home in Koplek village in the Andkhoi district due to family violence. Isa was a young boy who ended his life on September 16th of this year due to economic poverty in the fifth district of Faizabad city, the center of Badakhshan province. Sources in this province say that after Isa’s life became difficult economically, he planned to go to Iran, but his family could not finance his trip. According to the sources, Isa had lost hope of continuing to live and for this reason, committed suicide.
Another young man named Rostam committed suicide on August 31st in Balkh province. Sources in this province say that Rostam had been unemployed for several months; While he was also responsible for providing for the family. According to residents, this young boy hanged himself out of being unable to provide his necessities. Sources state that he has a three-year-old boy.
Besides these cases, teenage boys have been victims of self-inflicted deaths in different provinces of the country. Four teenage boys have committed suicide since the beginning of the solar year. One of these teenagers was named Najibullah and he was a resident of Qaradang village of Rostaq district of Takhar province. Sources close to him say that this teenage boy was only 12 years old and it is not clear why he committed suicide. According to residents, Najibullah had hanged himself. The local officials of the Taliban group have not yet expressed their opinion on this matter, but in some cases, they have considered the suicide of young boys to be caused by nervousness and psychological problems and have stated that they are continuing the investigation to clarify the motive behind the suicides. Research whose results are not clear even months after people’s self-inflicted deaths.
In addition, the collected statistics show that with the country’s reintroduction of the Taliban regime, suicide cases among girls have also increased. In some cases, the motive for suicide is still not clearly defined. According to many citizens, these suicides are caused by family problems and violence. Qamargul was a teenage girl who committed suicide in Faryab province, and it is not yet clear what was the motive of her suicide. Sources in Faryab province say that this 15-year-old girl hanged herself on August 25th in Islam Qala village, Shirintagab district of Faryab province. There are no more details about the suicide of this teenage girl.
Among the collected statistics, most cases of suicide happened in Faryab province. According to the obtained figures, 9 people, including two young boys and seven women, including three young girls and a teenage girl, have ended their lives in Faryab province in the last six months alone. Takhar province is in second place, where eight people committed suicide during the current solar year. This statistic includes the suicide of six women, including five young girls and two men (one young boy and one teenager). After these provinces, the province of Ghor ranks third with four suicide cases (three men and one girl), and Badakhshan province with four cases, including one teenage boy and one teenage girl. The province of Daikundi with three suicide cases (two young boys and one young girl), and the province of Balkh with two suicide cases (one man and one young boy) are in the next ranks. In the past six months, two young girls in Uruzgan province, a young girl and a middle-aged man in Herat prison, two young girls in Bamyan province, two middle-aged men in the province of Nimroz, two young boys in the province of Ghazni, a young boy in the capital Kabul, a woman in Kandahar province, a young boy in the province of Badghis, a young boy in the province of Nangarhar, a young girl in Samangan province, a young boy in the province of Paktika, a man in the province of Paktia and a young boy in the province of Kapisa committed suicide.
According to the statistics, among these people, seven people died because of acute life problems, six people because of family violence, four people because of poverty, four people because of neurological diseases, two people because of opposition to forced marriage, and one person because of accusation of adultery. have committed suicide. It has also been said that two people committed suicide by accident. However, the motive for the suicide of 23 others has not yet been determined.
Among the 49 people who committed suicide this year, 25 of them hanged themselves and 11 of them ended their lives by shooting themselves. Also, two of them set themselves on fire and two others died of eating “rat poison” and ended their lives. In addition to these cases, one person died after eating poison and another person died after taking too much opium. In the other seven cases, it has not yet been determined how the suicide was done.
The citizens of the country have also reacted to these continuous suicides. According to most of them, poverty and unemployment, forced marriages, restrictions on women and girls, loss of hope for the future, and family problems are the main reasons for these suicides. Several users on social media complain about the Taliban and say that since the return of this group to power, most of the men and women of the country have lost their jobs. According to them, the change in the system caused the country’s economy to weaken and many people could not support their families.
This is even though according to published reports, most of the citizens in different provinces, including Herat and Badghis, have put their body parts up for sale out of ignorance. According to these cases, the citizens point out that the Taliban group has captured the nation as their captives. According to citizens, the Taliban have limited work opportunities and they are not able to provide income-generating jobs in the country. They forcefully marry girls and extort money and tithe from citizens under various pretexts.
Studies by international organizations show that in the first six months of Taliban rule over Afghanistan (from July 2021 to January 2022), half a million citizens of the country lost their jobs. Based on this survey, it is predicted that with one year of Taliban rule over the country, about one million jobs have been lost in Afghanistan. This is even though Afghanistan is a landlocked country and has been involved in war for the past four decades. In the last two decades, the country’s economy relied on the help of international organizations and the world community. With the departure of American soldiers from the country on August 15th last year, many of these aids have also been cut off. In the later years of the former government, the country’s annual income was less than one billion dollars a year; While the civil and military budget of the government was estimated to be around eight billion dollars per year. However, the suspension of international aid to Afghanistan caused the stagnation of the national economy, and as a result, poverty overshadowed more than 80% of the citizens. Currently, 19 million people in the country do not have access to safe food. Therefore, poverty is the main cause of several suicide events in the country.
On the other hand, most of the people who had civil or military duties in the previous government were dismissed by the Taliban, and people affiliated with this group were hired instead. The soldiers who were serving in the former army have also turned to ordinary work. Psychologists have repeatedly said that the pressures of life and family problems in the country are known to be the main causes of suicides. It should be noted that recently, the number of forced marriages has also increased. Recently, several families and women have accused Taliban fighters of coercion and forced marriages. These cases of marriages have finally caused family problems and suicide among young girls and teenagers in the country.
However, the collected statistics show that in the second six months of the year 1400 (solar year system) [end of 2021 and start of 2022], the number of suicides in the country was lower compared to the first half of the year 1400. According to the available statistics, in the second half of the solar year 1400, 19 people committed suicide in different provinces of the country. But still, this statistic shows that with each passing day it becomes more difficult to live under the Taliban flag and the suicide rate of citizens may increase due to the problems mentioned in the second half of this year.
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