Young women in rural Uzbekistan seek escape by self-immolation.

Byline: Mark McDonald

SAMARKAND, Uzbekistan _ The kerosene, she remembers, felt cool on her neck, and it quickly soaked through her cotton sundress, the blue one with the periwinkles on it. When she struck the match, she remembers, the flames flared into her hair and raced down the left side of her body, but somehow, oddly, she felt chilled. She heard someone screaming, then realized it was her voice. By the time she passed out, her left arm had melted across her breasts.

Madina, in many ways, is typical of the unhappy, overworked and degraded young women who try to burn themselves to death each year in Central and South Asia. The practice stretches back centuries and persists today in the "modern" world.

"Many people think of these burnings as normal, as a fact of life that's rooted in our past," said Bibisara Oripova, a burn specialist and surgeon who runs the Umid (Hope) Center, a shelter for abused and suicidal women in Samarkand, the ancient Silk Road city. "Our people used to worship fire as something holy. When a child was born, a candle was held close to it, or the baby was carried around a bonfire.

"Now ...