HERAT, August 23, 2011: In total, 48 cases of self-immolation, 45 of them women, have been registered over the past four months, an increase over the past year in Western Afghanistan, Dr. Arif Jalali, a specialist at the Herat Burns & Plastic Surgery Hospital, told media.

The main causes of self-immolation are violence in families, poverty, drug addiction and forced and early marriages, Jalali added.

PAJHWOK/ Mawladad Yaqobi