Tehran University Medical Journal

Background: Self-immolation is a common method for suicide among women in developing countries. Culture is considered as an influential factor for attempting suicide by selfimmolation. Better understanding of the influence of culture will be useful to develop specific prevention strategies. Therefore, the study aimed to explore how the culture can influence on
attempting suicide by self-immolation among women.
Methods: The study was performed by a qualitative approach using directed content analysis in Imam Khomeini Hospital, Kermanshah, Iran, 2011- 2013. Our participants were selected purposefully among patients who attempted suicide by self-immolation (n= 9), their relatives (n= 6), and treatment staff (n= 6). We used semi-structure interview
for data gathering. The interviews were tape recorded and transcribed. Then, transcribed interview was analyzed by constant comparison.
Results: The main extracted theme was self-immolation sub-culture. Two main categories and 6 sub- categories were also emerged that explored the effect of culture on attempting suicide by self-immolation. The main categories were cultural restriction, and cultural acceptation. Marriage- divorced related traditions, living in extended family, and cultural
conversations and cultural meanings of self-immolation were among extracted subcategories. The category of cultural restriction described the role of culture in the occurrence of family conflicts as a predictor of attempting suicide by self-immolation, and cultural acceptation, the second category, explained how self-immolation is accepted as a
method of choice of suicide in the understudied culture.
Conclusion: Our finding showed that subculture of self-immolation provides influential conditions for attempting suicide by self-immolation. According to the findings, cultural restriction may facilitate conditions to occurrence of attempting self-immolation, and cultural acceptance provides conditions to perdurability of self-immolation as a method of
suicide. Considering these conditions is recommended in designing prevention programs.