Re: Pakistani boy who burned himself over uniform dies
Pakistani boy’s self-immolation over school uniform raises alarm about poverty - The Washington Post
Pakistan schoolboy’s self-immolation over school uniform raises alarm over poverty
Smaller Text Larger Text Text Size
Print
E-mail
Reprints
By Richard Leiby and Haq Nawaz Khan, Monday, April 2, 1:46 PM
ISLAMABAD — As the school term ended across Pakistan last week, proud families flocked to their children’s grade-promotion ceremonies much as they do in the United States. For a 13-year-old named Kamran Khan, the occasion promised special honors: He ranked first in his class in his rural village.
But instead of attending, Kamran set himself on fire with gasoline – ashamed, his family said, that he was too poor to afford a new school uniform as he entered the seventh grade.
(Haq Nawaz Khan/For The Washington Post) - Saleem Khan, 17, holds a photo of his brother, Kamran Khan,13, as Kamran receives an award at school. Kamran set himself on fire with gasoline – ashamed, his family said, that he was too poor to afford a new school uniform as he entered the seventh grade.
Even in a country where 60 percent of the population lives in deep poverty, the boy’s self-immolation raised alarm. Kamran, who died Saturday from his burns, has become a symbol of the hopelessness of families crushed by high unemployment, rising prices for staples such as wheat and skyrocketing fuel costs.
“We lost such a brilliant student, and only because of extreme poverty,” said Zakir Ullah Khan, principal of Mohmand Education Academy, a private school that enrolled Kamran for free because of his academic promise.
The boy’s family of seven lived with relatives in Pir Qilla, a town of some 2,000 families in a rural area about 40 miles from the Afghan border in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Kamran’s mother is a maid and his unemployed father went to Saudi Arabia three months ago, attempting to find work, relatives said.
With his family unable to afford treatment, Kamran succumbed to the burns over 65 percent of his body.
Though statistics are sparse, officials say they have seen a spike in suicides among all age groups in recent years. “Primarily it’s joblessness and poverty,” said Zohra Yusuf, head of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.
Kamran’s March 25 self-immolation, though rooted in poverty, seemed connected to other stresses, too. It followed a harsh quarrel with his mother, Shahnaz Bibi, who said she had told him she could not afford to buy him a new school outfit — a white pants-and-tunic set called a shalwar kameez — citing the need to feed the family of three daughters and another son.
“He threatened me that he was going to kill himself,” Bibi, 40, said in a tearful interview in Pir Qilla. “I felt he was only threatening.”
To obtain the gas, Kamran used his childhood savings, breaking open a small pot that is the equivalent of a piggy bank, Bibi said.
“Mama, I am going forever,” he told her before igniting himself.
“I was totally helpless,” she recalled, “and within minutes his body was burnt.”
Kamran also harbored resentment because his mother gave up for adoption a newborn daughter two years ago, according to Kamran’s elder brother, Saleem Khan. “Had we not been poor, we would have our sister with us,” the 17-year-old said.
But Bibi said she did not regret her decision because at the time she could not afford to feed, clothe or educate the children she already had.
The episode also led to marital strains, according to those close to family, and that might have played into Kamran’s unhappiness.
Bibi collected donations and transported her burned son in a relative’s car to two different hospitals in Peshawar – but one would not admit him and the other did not have a burn unit. She then took the boy to a military hospital with a burn center in the town of Kharian in Punjab province.
She said the hospital wanted 500,000 rupees, around $5,500, to treat Kamran – a sum impossibly beyond her reach. Kamran by then was near death.
The mother ended up selling her gold earrings to pay for an ambulance to transport her son’s body back to their home town for burial.
A military spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Bibi’s account.
By reaching the seventh grade, Kamran had achieved the average educational standard in Pakistan. The expected length of schooling is seven years, according to figures from the United Nations Development Program.
Fifty-five percent of Pakistanis are illiterate, by U.N. measurement.
Another high-profile self-immolation occurred in October, when Raja Khan, an unemployed father of two from Sindh, used kerosene to set himself ablaze in front of Parliament in Islamabad. He was of no relation to Kamran Khan.
Raja Khan, 23, cited poverty and asked the government to take care of his children. He left a letter that said, in part, “I am taking this step because I am fed up with my financial condition.” (His third child was born within days of his death.)
Public school fees in Pakistan run just over $2 a month. Even so, many in the country never rise above the poverty line. Those who knew young Kamran Khan said he seemed destined for a better life.
“Kamran was a shining, outstanding, calm and talented student,” said principal Zakir Ullah Khan, who had known the boy since nursery school.
Besides his top ranking for the sixth grade, Kamran had achieved the No. 2 ranking in the entire academy, whose classes extend to the 10th grade.
While relatives and friends gathered to mourn the boy Sunday, his mother sobbed as she recounted Kamran’s life and accomplishments. And she said, “I should have bought a new uniform for him.”
Khan reported from Pir Qilla, Pakistan. Correspondent Shaiq Hussain in Islamabad also contributed to this report.
