ABSTRACT
Most of the research on suicide by fire is based on samples from Asian nations. Three countries from the Asian continent alone (India, Sri Lanka, and Iran) accounted for nearly half of the world's known published cases, and burn centers in these three nations saw, on average, forty cases of self-immolators each year. In Asian nations suicide by fire can be viewed as an aggressive act associated with "cultures of victims". In particular, women can show their anger and get revenge on their families. Much of the writing on self-immolation focuses on the Hindu rite of sati during which grieving widows throw themselves on the funeral pyres of their husbands. However, death by fire also has roots in Christian religious cultures, the main cultural roots of the United States. Fire is defined as a major source of punishment for sinners in Christian definitions of Hell.
