The Intersections of Protest Suicides, Oppression and Social Justice

Abstract

This paper focuses on protest suicides that highlight oppression and influence collective action for social justice and change. A few cases and contexts of protest suicides from the 1960s onwards are used to demonstrate this intersectionality. I address two types of protest suicides: first, the protest public suicide that is predominantly enacted in the public space and draws attention to the suicide victim and the oppression that the suicide victim represents or is alleged to represent. Second, the cumulative suicide where individuals commit suicide privately but because of the sheer cumulative number of those who do so due to a shared grievance, society is obliged to take notice. I examine the cultural, social, economic and political underpinnings of a society in determining the propensity to commit such an act and also in shaping societies reaction. The paper concludes by indicating the need for further comparative research on these complex intersection s Keywords: Public protest suicide. Cumulative suicide. Self-immolation. Oppression. Social justice. Intersectionality