Suicides on the Increase in Iran

September 10 is World Suicide Prevention Day. A new report by the Iranian State Welfare Organization has concurrently shown the number of recorded suicides increased again in Iran last year. Citing the Iranian Legal Medicine Organization, it states that in the Iranian calendar year 1399, from March 20, 2020 to March 20, 2021, 5,542 people in Iran were known to have died as a result of suicide. The figure stood at 5,143 in 1398: an increase of 7.75 percent in 12 months.

Hossein Assadbeygi, head of the Welfare Organization’s Supervisory Group for the Affairs of Victims of Social Ills, told the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA) on September 9 that the number of recorded suicides in Iran increases every year. Part of the reason for this is population growth. The number of known suicides in the year 1396 – from March 21, 2017 to March 20, 2018 – was 4,625 while in 1397 it surpassed 5,100.

For this reason, he said, the increase could not necessarily be attributed to the pandemic, Iran’s worsening economic crisis, or other socio-political factors. “From the very first, when the pandemic started, health experts across the world were worried about an increase in suicides. But studies in various countries have shown that the pandemic has not generally led to more suicides, even though in some countries the rate might have increased.”

Every year, he said, the provinces of Ilam, Kermanshah, Lorestan and Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Amad record suicide rates than other parts of Iran. Assadbeygi said in his view, this was because “they are traditional societies in the process of transitioning to a more advanced state, but their culture has not advanced at the same pace. For instance, some of the girls in these provinces are forced to marry people whom they don’t like.”

Suicide is the 13th leading cause of death in the world, accounting for around 1.4 percent of the global mortality rate according to the available data.

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