ABSTRACT
The use of self-immolation for suicide is not uncommon, especially in Arab and Asian countries. Of the 4,267 suicides in Iran in 2003 to 2004, 1,156 were by self-immolation. The modal suicide was female and young, and the rate was higher in rural areas than in urban areas. Many cultures have suicide by self-immolation in their myths and in their history. The mythical Greek hero Heracles threw himself onto a funeral pyre after his wife smeared his chest with toxic blood from a centaur. Romm speculated that self-immolation expresses both rage and expiation for sin as well as being a way of sacrificing oneself or protesting against evil. Biggs noted that political movements that involve self-immolation do not typically involve suicide terrorism and usually involve a grave cause. This chapter documents two incidents of self-immolation—Thich Quang Duc and Norman Morrison.
