Saudis Aiding and Abetting Suicide

No, we're not talking about suicide bombers.

We're well aware that's a cottage industry in Saudi Arabia.

This report talks about the increasing suicide rate among women, which shouldn't be all that surprising since they're treated worse than dogs over there.

Segregated from men, banned from driving and facing restrictions on travel, work, and even study, many Saudi women attempt suicide to escape one of the world's strictest societies.

Saudi Arabia, a conservative Islamic state where clerics demand the seclusion of females, often has an unforgiving attitude to women who find themselves victim to male violence.

A 19-year-old woman who was abducted and gang-raped by seven men was recently sentenced to 200 lashes in a case that drew international criticism and tarnished the image of Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, around the world.

King Abdullah this week issued a pardon for the woman, in what appeared to be a sharp rebuke to clerics of Saudi Arabia's hardline Wahhabi Islam who dominate the judiciary.

Tarnished the image? That's a hoot.

Their image has been tarnished far longer than that.

Suicide is strongly proscribed in Islamic law, and hospitals often register suicides as "misuse of medicine" thus allowing cases to slip through the statistical net.

A rare 2006 study of suicide survivors carried out by Salwa al-Khatib, a researcher at King Saud University, found that 96 cases involved women compared to four cases involving men.

She said the hospital where she works as a counsellor receives on average 11 suicide attempts by women each month.

"Women go through severe depression due to social pressure," Khatib said.

"The differentiation between males and females inside families contributes to growing pressure ... Men who are raised to be superior mostly look down on women. They develop abusive behaviour to express power over them."

Using light doses of medicine during daytime hours, many suicide attempts by women are clearly cries for help rather than serious attempts to end their lives, Khatib said.

"Many teenage girls in Saudi Arabia suffer from lack of communication with their parents. No one listens to their emotional, social or even educational problems," Khatib said.

Forced marriage is a common factor behind the depression young women suffer, researchers say. Usually only women from affluent upper-class families manage to marry partners of their own choosing in Saudi Arabia.

Layla, a former administrator at Kingdom Hospital in Riyadh, recounted one case of a 20-year-old woman who tried to take her life because her parents forced her to marry a man in his 70s.

"She tried slitting her wrists just after a few months of the marriage. Forced marriage is one of the most serious problems girls face," she said.

Well, if the suicide doesn't work out, they can always subject them to a couple hundred lashes or perform an honor killing.

More on Monday's pardoning of the rape victim at Monkey Tennis Centre.