Kabul, Afghanista ? Though some gains have been made since the fall of the Taliban five years ago, life remains bleak for many women in Afghanistan, and an alarming number each year are committing suicide by fire.

A forced marriage to a man decades older than her wore down 16-year-old Gulsum who was forced to endure beatings by her drug-addicted husband. After one beating, she ran to the kitchen, doused herself with gas from a lamp and struck a match.

Gulsum, who goes by one name, survived. Her pretty face and delicate feet were untouched by flames, but beneath a red turtleneck sweater, floral skirt and white shawl, her skin is puffy and scarred.

More than a month after her attempt, her gnarled hands still bleed.

“It was my decision to die. I didn’t want to be like this, with my hands and body like this,” she said, sitting on a hospital bed in Kabul and hiding her deformed hands beneath her shawl.

Reliable statistics on self-immolation nationwide are difficult to gauge. In Herat province, where the practice has been most reported and publicized, there were 93 cases last year and 54 so far this year. More than 70 percent of these women die.

“It’s all over the country. … The trend is upward,” said Ancil Adrian-Paul of Medica Mondiale, a nonprofit that supports women and girls in crisis zones.

An Afghan woman, Gulsum, 16, shows her burnt hands at ICRC hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan. She attempted suicide by setting herself on fire after being beaten by her 40-year-old husband.

The group has seen girls as young as 9 and women as old as 40 set themselves on fire. But many incidents remain hidden, Adrian-Paul said.

“A lot of self-immolation and suicide cases are not reported to police for religious reasons, for reasons of honor, shame, stigma. There is this collusion of silence,” Adrian-Paul said on the sidelines of a conference this week in Kabul on self-immolation.

Under the hard-line Taliban regime, women were unable to vote, receive education or be employed. In recent years, women have gained the right to cast ballots and female candidates have run for parliament, but women are often still regarded as second-class citizens.

Gulsum has since been transferred to a hospital in Kabul, where she has undergone surgery and must undergo three or four more procedures to repair other muscles.

She is happier lately and wants to wear pretty clothes again but is waiting to make plans for her future until she is well.