Written by: m.wilson
The number of women burned as witches up until the 18th century has declined in recent years as the previously proposed statistics (sometimes totaled at nine million) are now considered “too high.” According to Genderside.org, the latest scholarship shows that the number of female witch executions in Europe between 1450 and 1750 is more like 40,000. And so it seems that history is now changing before our very eyes.
However, for those who learned of this era in a feminist context during college, for example, it may take time to accept the reduction as more than just some kind of (holokauston) denial. In any event, 40,000 is still too many, and it’s difficult to imagine a time when thousands of women could be punished in such a tortuous way solely because of fears of the supernatural.
Burning alive is regarded as one of the top ten worst tortures, and even among the most horrifying practices, like the “The Blood Eagle,” for example, a (“Hannibal Lecter”) type of Viking ritual from the Iron Age that may not have caught on as well as the more uncomplicated techniques. “The Rack” on the other hand, used since the 4th century BC in Greece, became commonplace in countries like England and Russia up until the 17th and 18th century Enlightenment period, when such gruesome practices began to cool off. Of course, in the 21st, it is less likely to encounter certain types of extreme torture, with the exception of self-immolation, which remains reasonably prominent in the spheres of suicide and political activism.
“Self-immolation, or self-burning, is defined as a deliberate and willing sacrifice of oneself, often by fire, which is the common violent, tragic, and dramatic type of suicide in middle-aged adults. It has also been observed in young married women in other Asian settings, including Iran, Iraq (Kurdish Regions), Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Sri Lanka (Eastern Province)” – BMC
Self-immolation, along with suicide, is increasing around the world and especially in Eastern countries like India, Iran, and Sri Lanka, where it is the chosen method 27 percent of the time! Iran, in particular, where the general suicide rate is considered low at 6.8 percent, maintains a 25 – 41 percent rate of self-immolation, which is said to drastically increase the ‘mortality and morbidity burden’ for the country.
“It was like nobody cared about what I said?”
Burn patients interviewed in a BMC Women’s health study stated that their particular ideation in suicide by fire was associated with notions such as: “Nobody cared what I said” and ‘When I realized my parents were no longer supporting me, I gave up.’ Of the roughly 20 percent who survive self-immolation, the majority of them typically say they wish they hadn’t done it. Another 2017 study published in Science Direct also found that most burn survivors regret their decision to set themselves on fire but usually blame other people for what they did. Findings such as these make it even more excruciating to witness self-immolation when considering that the person engulfed in flames may have changed their mind.
Suicide is a psycho-social response to a hostile environment, feelings of despair, addiction such as alcoholism, post-traumatic stress disorder, major depression, schizophrenia, agitation, and social isolation. Its causing factor is often correlated with financial difficulties or interpersonal problems. – BMC
“I have chosen the flaming death of the Buddhists.”
Arguably, self-immolation is not a typical suicide since it is considered a “black torture,” and perhaps it is this shocking nature of the act that explains why it continues gaining in popularity among activists. Americans were following the example of the self-immolating Vietnamese Buddhists when the war protests began – the first being 82-year-old Alice Herz, a German-Jewish refugee calling for an end to “the arms race all over the world.” Alice had set herself ablaze on a Detroit, Michigan street corner in March 1965, when according to Wikipedia, a man driving by with his two sons pulled his car over and extinguished the flames. Alice was then rushed to the hospital and remained alive for another 10 or 11 unfathomable days.
The next anti-war activist was Norman Morrison, nine months later, who burned himself in front of the Pentagon, and in the forthcoming decades hundreds of Americans would self-immolate for various reasons, including Willie B. Philips in 1972 who was protesting the treatment of African Americans. In more recent years there has been a great deal of climate activism like Wynn Alan Bruce who self-immolated in 2022.
Kathy Change, an activist and artist, self-immolated in 1996 because of, she said, “the present government and economic system.” Jon Coburn, Senior Lecturer in American History, University of Lincoln, surmised that Kathy’s suicide was deemed by the public as less “authentic” or politically motivated. The self-immolation of Maxwell Azarello in front of an NYC court where Donald Trump’s “hush money” trial was taking place is probably similar to Kathy Change when compared with someone like Aaron Bushnell, for example, who screamed “free Palestine” as he burned. Presidential candidate for the Green party, Jill Stein, even wrote a positive message on X about Bushnell posting, “Rest in power Aaron Bushnell – May his sacrifice deepen our commitment to stop genocide now.”
Maxwell Azarello was a 37-year-old “researcher,” a seemingly charismatic person who posted videos and pictures that resembled stock photos on his Instagram account. This is where he published his “I have set myself on fire-and here’s why” pamphlet, which received thousands of comments from followers, many of whom apparently remained confused about his reasons posting, ‘… so why did you do it?’ In “…here’s why,” he wrote about Carnie of Wilson-Phillips and her experience in a recording studio, which was haunted by a ghost named Giovanni who’d self-immolated, and the still unsolved arson case. He was also highly concerned with subtle racial cues and about how crypto is a Ponzi scheme soon to destroy the economy.
If Maxwell was a conspiracy theorist, he might have watched some of the many videos posted by Christians and others, the ones with the similar, ongoing narratives centered on the rich and powerful – about their greed for money and the secrecy of their debased sexual practices, etc., and how each of them achieved success through some evil, ritualistic sacrifice. It seems only natural to be somewhat reminded of these notions having to do with such rituals when encountering the tortured screaming of self-immolation. Watching someone’s face, entire skull, and body, burn up in raging, accelerated fires and devoured until hollow.
