Forced suicide
Forced suicide is a method of execution where the victim is coerced into committing suicide to avoid facing an alternative option they perceive as much worse, such as being tortured to death, suffering public humiliation, or having friends or family members imprisoned, tortured or killed.
In Asia[edit]
The Hindu practice of sati, in which a recently widowed woman would immolate herself on her husband's funeral pyre,[1][2][3] is not generally considered a type of honor killing.[4][5] However, the extent up to which Sati was a purely voluntary act or one that was coerced is actively debated. There have been some incidents in recent times, such as the Roop Kanwar case, in which forced sati was suspected.[6] Additional cases are under investigation,[7] though no evidence of forced suicide has yet been found.[8][9][10]
Some instances of Japanese seppuku fall into this category. The culture practiced by the samurai expected them to ritually kill themselves if found disloyal, sparing a daimyō or shōgun the indignity of executing a follower. This was especially the case in the Edo period, and Asano Naganori was a clear example.
In Europe[edit]
Erwin Rommel, a German military leader during World War II, was implicated in a plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 1944. On Hitler's orders, two generals went to Rommel's home and offered him a choice of either going through a public trial (which would inevitably lead to his execution and the punishment of his family) or taking his own life by swallowing cyanide (in which case he would receive a hero's funeral and his family would be spared imprisonment). Rommel opted for suicide on 14 October 1944; details of his fate were confirmed by his widow and son after the end of the war.[11]
As a substitute for honor killings[edit]
A forced suicide may be a substitute for an honor killing when a woman violates the namus in conservative Middle Eastern societies. In 2006, the United Nations investigated reports of forced suicides of women in southeastern Turkey.[12]