ROME - Three suicides in a single day, in three different areas in Saudi Arabia. Three girls, all students, all well-to-do and without apparent motive took their lives in Abha, in Bisha and in Taif. This happened a few weeks ago. There was no direct link with the uprisings that are raging in the Arab world, or with the ''day of anger'' that will be held tomorrow in the kingdom by the Shiite minorities. The rising number of suicides among young people, adolescents and particularly unmarried women in the Saudi Sunni high-society worries the authorities and has alarmed the local media. These alarm bells of a social problem can no longer be ignored. Saudi Arabia's Interior Minister, quoted by Gedda Arab News, said that the number of suicides almost doubled over the past decade in the kingdom, from 400 cases in 1999 to 787 in 2010. Considering the fact that in an ultra-conservative Islamic community suicide is still taboo, an act of shame that should be hidden inside the family walls, the numbers are probably higher. The official figures are still high enough to ask questions about the phenomenon however. According to Arab News, the statistics could indicate that the Saudi authorities are more willing to face this issue. Some experts, interviewed by the newspaper, believe however that suicide has become an acceptable choice among young Saudis, adolescents in particular, as it is for their Japanese peers. A 'legitimate answer' to an increasingly difficult and complex life. Based on a three-year survey carried out by the Saudi Committee for family protection, 80% of a total of 156 suicide attempts was made by girls. Full Story>>
Saudi Arabia: Suicides among well-off adolescents doubles http://www.ansamed.info/en/news/ME.XEF15034.html
