Suicide in Palestine: Narratives of Despair
Nadia Taysir Dabbagh

Northampton, MA: Olive Branch Press, 2005. 265 pages.

Within the context of Islamic thought, suicide has met both tolerance and
resistance and has spawned two cultural categories: suicide and martyrdom.
Nadia Taysir Dabbagh approaches the issue with a dexterity honed by med-
ical experience, and her insightful analysis of the two concepts reveals that
suicide is perceived as a private act condemned by society and religion, while
martyrdom is a public act exalted for the greater good. The fusion of theories
plucked from psychiatry, anthropology, and psychology and then coupled
with compelling case studies conducted in Ramallah and Gaza creates a cov-
erage that treads the line between objective analysis and morbid fascination,
as her research contributes a reasoned account of a startling trend largely lost
in a region immersed in its tumultuous past and present and uncertain future.

This book is the product of an intercalated M.B.–Ph.D. program submit-
ted to the Psychiatry Department at University College London. The intro-
ductory chapter incorporates an elucidated methodology that identifies bio-
logical, social, and psychological study approaches, with the primary system
of analysis resting on the latter. This person-centred technique perceives sui-
cide as an individual phenomenon linked to risk factors (e.g., depression,
anxiety, and stressful life events) and associations. Likewise, the social
approach favors a broader angle and associates suicide with such social con-
ditions as unemployment, domestic violence, and sociopolitical protest. The
biological approach draws a correlation between affective disorders, such as
bipolar disorder, and suicide. Eminent suicidologists, such as Michael Kral,
Silvia S. Canetto, and David Lester, who assert that suicidal behavior should
be placed in its cultural as well as social context, provide the publication’s
theoretical foundation. 

Chapter 3, “Death and Self-Killing in Arab Thought: Suicide and Mar-
tyrdom,” traces perceptions of suicide from pre-Islamic times to the feuds and
honor killings of the present day. Dabbagh portrays the evolution of suicide

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from an honorable act conducted in dire economic or social circumstances
through starvation (al-itifŒd) and alcohol consumption (shirib khamrŒ) to a
grave sin (kabirah) in the early centuries of Islam, when Qur’anic commen-
tators employed Qur’anic texts to justify its condemnation. One interpretation
contends that “Since Muslims are owned by God (his slaves) … they have no
right over their lives. Suicide can thus be seen as stealing from Him” (p. 25).
It is regrettable that this detail is concealed in a footnote, for questions sur-
rounding suicide’s progress from toleration to kabirah and the reason for this
shift remain unanswered, revealing a tangible gap. 

Despite this omission, the denunciation of suicide has impacted research
on fatal and near-fatal suicide attempts in the Occupied Territories. In chap-
ter 5, “Social Construction of Palestinian Suicide Statistics,” she provides a
vivid narrative of the disarray and ambiguities that thwarted her efforts to
formulate a comprehensive statistical analysis. Whether it is in the friendly
but shambolic Ramallah police station or the equally accommodating hospi-
tal, she states: “When I asked to go to the Old Archive everyone laughed and
said that no one goes there. I was even told there were rats” (p. 107). 

Although the reluctance to specify suicide as the diagnosis rendered the
results ambiguous, this is not something new. In 1964, Erwin Stengel noted
in Suicide and Attempted Suicide that “… there are other factors which tend
to falsify the suicide rates. In Roman Catholic and Moslem countries a ver-
dict of suicide is such a disgrace for the deceased and his family that it is
avoided wherever possible. This is why the very low suicide rates of the
Republic of Ireland and Egypt are suspect” (Penguin: 1964, p. 19). In her
quest for data, Dabbagh endured numerous setbacks for information that
may (or may not) reflect the circumstances. Yet her perseverance to salvage
results makes Suicide in Palestine a valuable addition to this area of study.

“Female Cases” and “Male Cases,” which comprise chapters 6 and 7,
respectively, ascertain the impetus for suicide. For women, marriage, moth-
erhood, and divorce feature heavily, supported by poignant accounts of vic-
timization and disconsolation. Men experience great pressure from society
and even themselves to fulfill their attributed role as “Man-the-Impregnator-
Protector-Provider” (p. 181). A major source of despondency arrived with
the end of the intifada, which had provided a majority of men a time of
camaraderie, employment, and a common objective. For Kareem, a 40-year-
old married man who attempted suicide in August 1998 through an over-
dose, the Israeli presence allowed him to move with greater ease and seek
employment. The Palestinian National Authority’s accession and the corrup-
tion rife thereafter restricted his life, and thoughts of suicide soon followed

116 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 22:4



(pp. 190-94). Even those too young to participate in the struggle reminisce
with ardent longing that “he would have preferred a prison life sentence like
his brother. He said this would have been more ‘honourable’ than the lonely
suffering he dealt with every day” (p. 190). 

That the male cases are often overlooked in comparison to their female
counterparts prompts Dabbagh to the significant conclusion that the concept
of “Man-the-Impregnator-Protector-Provider” inflicts demanding social
duties and responsibilities, since all of the male respondents longed to fulfill
this role. Their inability to do so compounded a belief that they had failed to
become social adult males. 

Change, then, must not come only from within the troubled respondents,
for as Dabbagh emphasizes: “If you are living in an atmosphere of daily
death and killing, causing your own death may not seem such an extreme
action” (p. 236). By way of conclusion, the author recommends that educa-
tional opportunities be increased; mental illness be destigamtized through a
series of awareness programs held at women’s groups and youth organiza-
tions; nurses should receive psychiatric assessment training to enhance their
understanding of the patient’s needs; unemployment, estimated at 50 percent
in 2003, must be reduced; and, on a wider level, the security wall must be
dismantled, as it promotes ghettos of deprivation that will further increase
Palestinian suffering (pp. 243-45). 

The recommendations are bona fide, but the practicality of actually
implementing them in an environment acknowledged as corrupt is severely
challenged. Nevertheless, Dabbagh’s fascinating style, edifying appendices
that provide a lucid table-based analysis of the case studies, and extensive
bibliography encompassing works from the medical, anthropological, and
political realms, render Suicide in Palestine a worthy contribution to under-
standing suicide in the Islamic world.

K. Luisa Gandolfo
Ph.D. Candidate, Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies

University of Exeter, United Kingdom

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