220 women in Iran province committed suicide

February 16, 2005 – (Iran Focus)Women and teenage girls comprise the majority of people in Iran's Ilam province (western Iran) who committed suicide throughout this year, according to the province's Councillor for Women's Affairs.

At least 220 cases of women committing suicide in Ilam have been recorded out of an estimated 400 suicides, Heyran Pournajaf said to a state-run news agency.

Iran has the highest suicide rate in the world.

"The most common form of suicide amongst women in Ilam is self-immolation, which is in protest to society dictating their lives to them", Pournajaf added.

The number of attempted suicides is much higher. Pournajaf said that women and girls in particular find it hard to face society where misogyny and discrimination against women have been institutionalised by the clerical regime.