“Herat Burning” multimedia posted on Assignment Afghanistan
Following my photo-essay “Afghanistan’s Burned Brides” from the January-February issue of Mother Jones, about the growing phenomenon of self-immolation, I decided to produce my own multimedia treatment of the story based on from the audio recordings, photos, and video I shot in the western city of Herat in September and October 2010. I posted “Herat Burning” on Assignment Afghanistan last week, and I hope you’ll share it.
Women in Afghanistan commit self-immolation out of desperation, as a protest against forced child marriage, spousal drug abuse, domestic violence, and extreme poverty. In recent years, the rate of self-immolation has increased in western Afghanistan, though no one is quite sure why. In the video, you’ll meet several young survivors of self-immolation and two women—a burn unit nurse and Afghanistan’s first female chief provincial prosecutor—who are trying to help them.
