Chinese literature and New York Times comparison.

The women in Afghanistan are constantly oppressed and abused.  The only way to illustrate their feelings is through self-inflicted physical torture, which often leads to their demise. Sei Shonagon anticipated people to say (about her diaries) “It’s even worse than I expected. Now one can really tell what she is like.” (B,258) That quote is exactly the point Afghani women make through their suicides. It is the only way to show the internal struggles and humiliation they bottle up for so long. People cannot begin to comprehend the depths of pain they feel. As it says in the New York Times article, “Their family is their fate. There is little chance for education, little choice about whom a woman marries, no choice at all about her role in her own house. Her primary job is to serve her husband’s family. Outside that world, she is an outcast.” Sei Shonagon writes her diary “entirely for my own amusement.” (B, 258.) The Afghani women commit suicide entirely to escape a brutal life.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/08/world/asia/08burn.html?scp=1&sq=for%20afghan%20woman%20a%20desperate%20fiery%20way%20out&st=cse