Transcultural Psychiatry
Volume 39, Issue 3, 2002, Pages 367-375

Kurdish Refugees’ View of Politically Motivated Self-Immolation (Article)

Husni M. , Koye N. , Cernovsky Z.Z. , Haggarty J.
  • a Northwick Park Hospital, United Kingdom
  • b London, United Kingdom
  • c University of Western Ontario, Canada
  • d University of Western Ontario, Canada

Abstract

Self-immolation has been used as a political tool by various oppressed groups, including Kurdish refugees. To examine sociodemographic correlates of the views on self-immolation, we carried out semi-structured interviews with 54 Kurdish refugees (18 women, 36 men). The majority of these refugees (74.1%) indicated that they did not expect self-immolations to help in obtaining freedom for Kurdistan. Their opinions on this issue were uniform across educational and occupational levels, gender, number of years since escape, and other socio-demographic variables, except age. Younger refugees were less likely to see self-immolation as politically effective. The belief in self-immolation was uncorrelated with the frequency of post-traumatic nightmares dealing with the escape from or persecution in Kurdistan. © 2002, Sage Publications. All rights reserved.

Author Keywords

Refugees nightmares Self-immolation Acculturation

Index Keywords

education nightmare refugee demography motivation human social aspect Turkey (republic) interview male occupation female cultural factor automutilation Article adult gender posttraumatic stress disorder age politics escape behavior
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-0036711201&doi=10.1177%2f136346150203900305&partnerID=40&md5=43f1207ffd798bacf1278adc6f0c3698
DOI: 10.1177/136346150203900305
ISSN: 13634615
Cited by: 2
Original Language: English