DUSHANBE (AFP) -- When daily quarrels with her husband became too much to bear for Raikhon, the 28-year-old Tajik woman drenched herself in petrol and struck a match, killing herself before the horrified eyes of her family.

Her husband Nurullo tried to put out the flames, but Raikhon died after receiving burns to 95 percent of her body.

In a tragic return to a grisly tradition, women in this impoverished Central Asian republic are committing suicide through self-immolation -- a phenomenon, Tajik prosecutors say, that has been spreading in the former Soviet Union's poorest republic over recent years.

"Some 40 women of different ages committed suicide through self-immolation over the past 20 months," using whatever inflammatory materials come to hand, said an official in the prosecutor general's office.

Official statistics however may only tell a part of the story since many families are too ashamed to report suicides, fearful of becoming ostracized by their communities.

Local Islamic priests threaten to refuse those who commit suicide a formal burial.

A religious council in Tajikistan's northern region of Sogd, which has the country's highest suicide rate, has even set up a special cemetery for suicide cases.

"Self-immolation is an extreme measure that young women go to because of quarrels with a husband or a mother-in-law," said Latofat Nasriddinova, chairwoman of the government's women's rights commission.

Many women owe their troubled life to the deep-rooted tradition that has families pick out spouses regardless of whether young people in question are ready for marriage or not. In most cases, they meet for the first time on the wedding day.

The suicides' average age grows steadily younger, with teenagers now among the risk group which used to be women between the age of 18 and 40.

The Tajik Interior Ministry argues that most women who kill themselves suffer from mental illness, although a sociologist who also represents the Red Crescent aid group said that the government is simply trying to hide from the truth.

Mental illness patients "make up less than one percent of all suicides," Davron Mukhammediev said.

Meanwhile, Raikhon's family struggles to cope with her suicide's aftermath. Her husband Nurullo left his house for places unknown shortly after the tragedy, leaving their young daughter to be brought up by grief-stricken relatives.

"Raikhon was always such an obedient girl, she knew how to sew, she cooked deliciously, she did everything so well," her aunt sobbed as she wiped away tears.

"She could not bear the humiliation and hardship. She was driven to despair," she added.

According to witnesses, the daily quarrels started as Nurullo failed in his desperate attempts to find work. However, the domestic strife did not sound like a sufficient reason for Nurullo's elder brother Bahrullo, who argued that "husbands and wives fall out everywhere."

"We cannot imagine how this could have happened in our family. Why did Allah punish us so?" he asked plaintively.