Twenty-eight women succeeded in killing themselves. The suicide rate in the southeast, the most traditional area of Turkey, is skyrocketing, rising more than 50 per cent since 1993. The rising rate comes during a decade in which the social fabric of the southeast has been torn apart by a brutal Kurdish guerilla war and the military's destruction or evacuation of an estimated 2,000 villages, which created hundreds of thousands of displaced people who flocked to city slums. The war also shattered the traditional agrarian economy of the area, leading to intense frustrations among slum dwellers who years earlier had been self-sufficient farmers. In the villages there is a system of social solidarity where people look after their neighbours.
Some people feel they are in an abyss.
The suicide rate among women in southeast Turkey, the most traditional part of the country, is skyrocketing, as many see killing themselves as the only way out of deep socio-economic problems, including poverty, forced marriages and family repression. The southeast is also an area where tribal traditions are still strong and illiteracy is widespread. Girls as young as 13 are sometimes married to sexagenarians against their will and many girls are not allowed out of the house by their fathers or husbands . Experts say the increased availability of television in the area has shown these women that there are different lifestyles in the West, making them less likely to suffer in silence. In the restrictive society of the southeast, some women see suicide as the only way out.