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Healing Mullahs in Demand: Kurdistan
18.11.2006
By Azeez Mahmood in Sulaimaniyah (ICR No. 202,
17-Nov-06) |
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Poor quality of mental health services thought to
account for popularity of local faith healers.
In the middle of a dark room, three women and a man
were laid on the floor side by side. Blankets
covered the bodies and faces of the women, and a
Koran was placed on their heads. They seemed
unconscious and their eyes were closed.
Mullah Nawshirwan, a tall, grey-bearded man, was
standing by their heads, reciting the Koran loudly.
Then he started beating them with a stick and
shouted, "Oh jinn! Get out of the body of this
Muslim."
As he beat them, they yelled without opening their
eyes, their bodies shaking. This went on for half an
hour then Nawshirwan told them, "Get up, the jinn
left your bodies."
Nawshirwan’s home in the town of Said Sadiq, 40
kilometres east of Sulaimaniyah, is drawing people
who’ve lost faith in conventional medicine and
believe their illnesses have a supernatural rather
than a physical or psychological cause.
People who visit Nawshirwan are convinced that a
“jinn” has taken possession of their body, causing
them pain or distress.
In Islamic mythology, a jinn is a supernatural,
invisible creature capable of almost everything -
and expelling it from the body of a sufferer though
religious ritual has a long history in the region.
Sheikhs and mullahs in Kurdistan are considered
sacred religious men, who can treat such
afflictions. Doctors and psychiatrists dismiss their
ceremonies as superstitious ritual, but many
ordinary people are convinced of their healing
powers.
Abdul-Rahman Abdullah, 55, has visited a number of
doctors in search of a cure for his stomach pain.
Doctors prescribed injections and pills and examined
him with ultra-sound, to no avail.
Eventually, doctors diagnosed him as having
psychological disorder and sent him to see a
specialist at Sulaimaniyah hospital.
But there he felt his condition was getting worse.
He believed he wasn’t being treated properly, so he
left hospital and went to Nawshirwan who told him a
jinn had slipped into his body and was the cause of
his pain.
"He recited the Koran over my head and beat me
heavily with a stick. He said 'Allahu Akbar (God is
great)' again and again," said Abdullah. "I felt my
body grow numb, and then felt something slip out of
the top of my big toe.”
Nawshirwan, 42, whose real name is Nawshirwan
Mahmood Abdullah, says he’s been expelling jinns for
ten years. He never attended medical school and only
has a secondary school diploma, yet he is convinced
of his healing power. “I have treated many patients
that no physician could heal,” he said.
Tara Ahmed, 46, a high school teacher, went to
Nawshirwan because of her back pain. Like Abdullah,
she had paid many visits to regular doctors but had
not been cured. However, after attending a ritual at
his house, she said her problem cleared up.
Nawshirwan - who charges his patients 30,000 to
50,000 Iraqi dinars (20 to 33 dollars) for a session
- claims that people afflicted with a jinn show
typical symptoms, "The patient suffers from
migraines, backache, has difficulties breathing at
night, is depressed, cries and has no appetite."
Dr Nizar Muhammed Ameen, a psychiatrist in
Sulaimaniyah, says that mainly uneducated people or
those from traditional families visit the faith
healers. "I have highly educated patients who come
to me but keep it a secret because they’re from
tribal families. They know that if their families
found out about their visits to a psychiatrist, they
would take them to a sheikh for treatment," he said.
Dr Kareem Shareef Qarachatani, a professor of
psychology at Salahaddin University, agrees that
such views are widespread, saying, “Our society
still has some superstitious beliefs that we
inherited from out fathers and forefathers.”
But the popularity of the mullahs and sheikhs is
also believed to be a consequence of the poor
quality of mental health treatment in the region,
"There are many psychological illnesses in our
society and unfortunately our psychiatrists treat
them all with drugs instead of thinking about other
approaches," said Qarachatani.
Azeez Mahmood is an IWPR trainee in Sulaimaniyah.
iwpr net
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