they may leave scars in my memory, but they definetly dont leave any in those who made her suffer.

i heard that some men do it for political causes as protest, but they are a drop in ocean of women who suffer everyday life nightmare.

i know they were burnt on stakes in the dark ages of christianity. grrrrrrr!

not only women were burnt, but all heretics.

it is horrible that those women believe that it could be a cleansing. damn culture. damn tradition and religion!

 I have no way of knowing if my assumption is right but I can´t imagine anything else but self hatred as a motivation.

 you know there are so many docummentary films and articles and researches about those women. but i think none of those people asked this question. or is it unethical to ask it?

 It is one of the first questions that should be asked.  As for whether or not it is ethical to ask?  Who cares!  I think it is key to trying to understand the women in these situations.  How can we endeavor to improve the lives of women around the world if we don´t ask?  I think that would be a great injustice to these women.  Maybe they are motivated to burn themselves so that people will notice they are willing to burn themselves alive rather than live out a terrible existance.   

If you care about making things better for people or understanding people, you are not afraid to ask questions....even if the answers are ugly.

I tell you who cares. All those politically-correct-how-dare-you-criticize-religion-and-offend-my-sensitivity people. And they brand you as Islamophobe if you dare to bring up to their attention the injustice done in the name of religion or they try to deny that those abuses are related to religion (among other things, I´m not saying it´s the only cause). Sometimes I just want to say f* it, what do I care, I´m not the one who is sentenced to lashes for having men bring me bread and I´m not the one sentenced to 20 years in prison for just questioning the religion or I´m not the one that is forced to marry my rapist or denied education because of my gender. But I do feel sorry for those women who suffer no matter how much those "culturally sensitive" people are trying to sugar coat it. It´s interesting that those people are usually not the ones that have to suffer either.

I feel very helpless when it comes to these women half way around the world.  Maybe we can´t help them, but denying what is happening is condeming them further.  There are so many organizations here in the US to help women.....I choose to focus on what I can do here but we can never ignore these women no matter how sad or horrible it is.

The burning might have something to do with the idea of afterlife. I have no idea how it works in Islam, in Christianity it´s a common belief that one day j will return to the Earth and all dead will rise from their graves. Or maybe it´s because of purifying properties of fire? Those poor women get burnt because they´re led to believe they purify themselves this way.

Melek and Lis, I know how you feel, I´m there as well. It´s easy to say bad things happen all over the world and it´s not only Muslim countries probem. but it sort of is - the scale of it and social attitude towards it.

the thing is that that most of those women dont die at the end. they live to suffer hell of many years, most of in hospitals, in horrible conditions.

somewhere in the internet:

"The workers at the centre have several theories about why so many women try to kill themselves in such an agonising way. Some believe that religion is to blame - if a woman does something wrong, so the theory goes, she faces burning in hell.

Others argue that in a conservative, patriarchal society, the pain of women is only recognised through dramatic gestures. The kerosene heaters that are in every home provide a way to be noticed."

which doesnt make sense at all. if she is facing a burning hell, then why the hell she burns herself now?

In the Netherlands the Ministry of Health started a campaign against cervix cancer by promoting a vaccin against it for girls of around 13 years. I wonder, is a campaign like that national or are there other countries with the same?