Woman ‘self-immolates’ over domestic dispute

Father alleges Taiba Bibi in Karachi burnt her

SHABQADAR:

A woman was injured after she set herself on fire. According to initial reports, Taiba Bibi took this step after her husband decided to sell his daughter’s gold ring to pay back his gambling debts.

However, Taiba Bibi’s father told The Express Tribune on Thursday that it was her in-laws who set her ablaze.



“I know that her in-laws burnt her and she [Taiba Bibi] had not attempted suicide,” Farhad Khan, her father, said. “She is lying to save the families from a feud.”

Taiba Bibi has two daughters: the youngest one who is six months old is with her father while the eldest who is two years old is with her in-laws.

Karachi to Shabqadar

According to Farhad, he was informed on December 2 that his daughter made a suicide attempt by burning her body. He rushed to Karachi, where Taiba Bibi was living.



“She remained in Burns Centre, Civil Hospital in Karachi till December 9 after which I brought her to Shabqadar,” he said.

Farhad hoped to get his daughter cured in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, but when he took Taiba Bibi to Lady Reading Hospital, he was told there were no facilities for burn patients. Farhad was referred to Khyber Teaching Hospital from where doctors sent him back to LRH.

However, at LRH doctors did not admit Taiba Bibi. On the contrary, they asked him to have medical tests done from a private hospital.

“I spent a lot of money on the tests, and when they were finally done doctors at LRH refused to admit my daughter.”



The man added he then took his daughter to a hospital in Shabqadar where there were no trained nurses, so he started taking care of Taiba Bibi on his own. “I’m a poor wager and have nothing to spend on her wounds.”

Farhad said he earned Rs400 and did not have enough money to take his daughter to private clinics or hospitals. Although he knew his daughter has been burnt and had not self-immolated, he did not register an FIR as his eldest granddaughter is with Taiba Bibi’s in-laws.

Her woe

Taiba told The Express Tribune that she was married to one of her father’s relatives in Karachi. Taiba Bibi’s husband was a taxi driver.



“Life was moving smoothly in the beginning, but later when I started enquiring about his personal life, he became furious and used to beat me,” she said.

However, she said her father repeatedly told her to make the marriage work.

She said she poured petrol on her body and tried to burn herself on December 2 when her husband wanted to sell her daughter’s
gold ring.

Although she managed to survive, doctors said 32% of her upper body was burnt.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 25^th, 2015.