Self-Immolation of Women in Ilam City, Iran: A Descriptive Study

Self-immolation is the death of a life. It is seen in women who have suffered greatly in life for long years, lost patience totally and found no way out except self-immolation.
The aim of this study was to identify the epidemiologic pattern of women's self-immolation in Ilam Province, Iran during the period 2011-2016.
This was a descriptive study in which data were collected based on the files of women who had immolated themselves during the period 2015-2016 and analyzed using the SPSS software, the statistical tests being descriptive statistics.
A total of 129 women, within the age range 11-95 years (mean 24 years), had immolated themselves during the 5-year period (53.5% in the age group 20-35 years), 73.6% of them being married and 77.5% housewives. The average body surface burn percentage was 70%, the range being 15-99%. Most cases of self-immolation had occurred in autumn and spring, mostly in the afternoon. The most common cause of self-immolation had been reported as unknown (38% of the cases), followed by mental disease and depression (30.2%) and family conflicts (17.1%), specially husband and wife conflicts.
Self-immolation is the unusual ending of a life. Young married women are more likely to get exposed to hardships and confusion in the course of family and community life. Depression is one of the most important causes of suicide, a consequence of issues such as violence and harassment by spouse and family, poverty, deprivation and destitution.