Fiji has what is believed to be the highest rate of female suicide in the world. But a new State Department report suggests that many suicide victims are in fact victims of the despicable practice of “bride burning.”
The high suicide rate occurs among Fiji’s ethnic Indian population. Of 288 people who attempted suicide in Fiji, 88 percent were ethnic Indian. According to the U.S. State Department, however, many of the suicides are suspicious,
In addition to the rise in domestic violence, there have been approximately 30 ‘suicides’ by Indo-Fijian women that appeared to have been bride burning. Police investigations report that the women burned themselves so severely as to cause death, but the women’s rights community believes that the deaths are the result of bride burning.
Murdering brides by burning them is a practice that occasionally occurs in India when there is a dispute between the groom’s and bride’s families over payment of a dowry.
Not everyone is buying the claim that all 30 suicides are the result of bride burning, however. Angela Devi, an Australian social worker from Fiji, said, “I know there are some instances of violence against women in the Indo-Fijian community but… it would be wrong to assume that all the 30 suicide deaths were results of bride burning.”
On the other hand, a Fiji governmental committee recently documented high levels of domestic violence in Fiji’s Indian community.
Sources:
Indo-Fijian women targets of bride burning: US report. NewWindPress.Com, March 12, 2002.
U.S. highlights Fiji ‘bride-burning’. Phil Mercer, The BBC, March 11, 2002.