KABUL (SW) – “Father, forgive me, my heart is fed up with this world; I don’t want to be here anymore, I want to go to heaven.” This is a part of the letter that Noor Al-Hada wrote to his father before committing suicide.
Noor Al-Hada was a 10th grade student in one of the schools in Faizabad city, the center of Badakhshan, who ended his life last month.
Mirwais, Nooralhada’s uncle, says that his nephew was 15 years old and suffered from mental illness. In addition to school, Noor Al-Hada was engaged in learning religious studies in the local school and English language at a local educational institute. “Our whole family is mourning his death”, he said.
Although suicide is a voluntary choice to end one’s life, the prevailing atmosphere in Afghanistan and the psycho-social and economic situation in the past year and a half have caused a significant number of teenagers and young adults to seek escape in committing suicides.
According to the reports of suicide in the media, in the last seven months, 62 people, including 44 women and 18 men, have ended their lives in 20 provinces in different ways. Among the 62 cases of suicide, Faryab and Ghor have the highest number with 18 and 16 cases, respectively. After Faryab and Ghor, the highest number of suicides was recorded in Bamyan, Daikandi, Kunduz, Badghis and Jawzjan.
Forced marriage has been reported as the motivation for seven suicide cases among women. Failure to study, family and social restrictions are also the motives of three cases of suicide among women. The reasons for the four suicide cases were poverty, unemployment and economic problems.
Psychologists consider excessive mental pressure and mental disorders as other causes of suicide in addition to these economic and social factors.
Sharafuddin Azimi, a psychologist, said: “Suicide is a type of crisis. When a person is in this crisis or in the process of going through it, he or she goes for self harm. Some mental disorders, anxiety, depression, unemployment, and the imposition of family and social restrictions are among the causes of this crisis.”
Likewise, Nizamuddin Nizami, a psychologist, says that psychological tensions and pressures, violence within the family and failure to achieve individual goals and desires can cause an increase in suicide in society, and most suicides occur between the ages of 18 and 30.
A number of social affairs experts say that suicide, in addition to the consequences it has for the individual’s family, can promote suicide among other people and stop the evolution of society.
Mohammad Nabi Ahmadi, a sociologist, says that suicide can cause widespread depression and despair among people in society and endanger social security. He adds: “When the suicide rate is high in a society, it shows the society as unstable and sick and creates many social problems; It highlights the dynamism and vitality of that pale society and the spirit of weakness and submission.”
Likewise, Zia Nikzad, another sociologist, says that a person’s suicide has a negative cultural impact, and over time, it can encourage friends, relatives and other members of the society to do this and turn into a disliked culture. “Other people in society look at the suicidal person as a role model, and this role model opens the way for others. Because of this, the possibility that the friends and family members of this person will commit suicide is very high.”
Psychologists say that families and the government can manage the suicide crisis and reduce the number of suicides in society by taking specific measures.
Sharafuddin Azimi says: “What can help in the current situation is the family, Because for the individual, the family members can reach him, listen to his words, take his warnings seriously and help in referring him to a psychologist”.
According to Azimi, the government should create great hopes in the society. “For example, remove restrictions, make it easier to find a job, and take care of matters that are important in individual freedoms”.
ENDS
