His suicide brings the number of deaths by self immolation to three since mid-January. The second man, who had tried to set himself on fire in front of the bank where he works, was prevented from doing so by a work colleague.
The newspaper reported that the bank had refused him financial aid to care for his handicapped daughter. He had been an employee with the local development bank, BDL, for over 18 years.
The latest incident brings the total number of attempts to 10, since 12th January. The spate of self immolations, mirror the act of a 26 year old Tunisia man, Mohammed Bouazizi, who protested against unemployment and police harassment.
Sources: AFP, Ennahar
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For the most part the conventional wisdom held that (for whatever reason) Arab cultures don't use self-immolation for political protest. The recent events have caused a lot of people to rethink that assumption and their constructed reasons as to why that was the case.
ReplyDeleteI'm putting up a three part blog on this topic based on a paper I wrote last year. Part one is here: http://rubiconman.blogspot.com/2011/01/self-immolation-performing-protest-with.html