Investigating the 'spiritual healers' sexually abusing women
August 8, 2023 BBC Arabic
By Hanan Razek
BBC News Arabic
A hidden world of sex abuse and exploitation by men working as "spiritual healers" has been uncovered by BBC Arabic.
Spiritual healing, also known as "Quranic healing", is a popular practice in the Arab and Muslim world. It is mostly women who visit healers - believing that they can solve problems and cure illness by expelling evil spirits known as "jinn".
Testimonies gathered by the BBC from 85 women, over a period of more than a year, named 65 so-called healers in Morocco and Sudan - two countries where such practices are particularly popular - with accusations ranging from harassment to rape.
We spent months speaking to NGOs, courts, lawyers and women, gathering and verifying stories of abuse. An undercover reporter who underwent treatment with one such healer for our investigation, was herself inappropriately touched before fleeing the scene.
Warning: Readers may find some of the details below distressing.
Short presentational grey line
Dalal (not her real name) sought treatment for depression from a spiritual healer in a town near Casablanca a few years ago, when she was in her mid-20s. She says the healer told her the depression was caused by a "jinn lover" who had possessed her.
At a one-to-one session he asked her to smell a scent he said was musk - but which she now believes to have been some kind of drug, because she lost consciousness.
Dalal, who had never had any sexual experience before, says she woke to find her underwear had been removed, and realised she had been raped. She says she began screaming at the raqi (Quranic healer), asking him what he had done to her.
"I said: 'Shame on you! Why did you do this to me?' He said: 'To make the jinn leave your body.'"
She says she didn't tell anyone what happened, as she was so ashamed and was sure she would be blamed. When she discovered a few weeks later that she was pregnant, she was terrified.
She even thought about taking her own life.
When she told the healer about the pregnancy, he replied that the jinn must have impregnated her. Dalal says she was so traumatised by her experience that when her baby was born, she refused to look at her, hold her, or even give her a name, and gave her up for adoption.
She told us that if her family found out what had happened to her, they would kill her.
... https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-65264921
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Re: Sudan: Investigating the 'Islamic spiritual healers' sexually abusing women
Sudan's religious schools accused of routinely abusing students
An investigation by BBC Arabic into Sudan's khalwas alleges that thousands of boys have been tortured by their teachers
As many as six or seven children are often chained together as punishment at some religious schools in Sudan (Jess Kelly/BBC News)
By MEE staff
Thousands of boys are routinely brutally beaten, shackled and kept in chains in Islamic schools, known as khalwas, across Sudan, an investigation by BBC News Arabic has uncovered.
Reporter Fateh al-Rahman al-Hamdani, a former khalwa student himself, went undercover for 18 months and secretly documented cases of routine torture in 23 khalwas.
Khalwas are traditional religious schools and have existed for hundreds of years in Sudan. There are nearly 30,000 of them today and they provide free education to children.
Abuse at Sudan's khalwa
Mohamed Nader, 14, is recovering from systematic abuse at the hands of his teachers (Jess Kelly/BBC News)
In one instance, in the well-respected Ahmed Hanafy khalwa in Darfur, a teacher whipped a small boy more than 30 times in a study room under a hot corrugated iron roof.
... https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/suda ... ols-khalwa
An investigation by BBC Arabic into Sudan's khalwas alleges that thousands of boys have been tortured by their teachers
As many as six or seven children are often chained together as punishment at some religious schools in Sudan (Jess Kelly/BBC News)
By MEE staff
Thousands of boys are routinely brutally beaten, shackled and kept in chains in Islamic schools, known as khalwas, across Sudan, an investigation by BBC News Arabic has uncovered.
Reporter Fateh al-Rahman al-Hamdani, a former khalwa student himself, went undercover for 18 months and secretly documented cases of routine torture in 23 khalwas.
Khalwas are traditional religious schools and have existed for hundreds of years in Sudan. There are nearly 30,000 of them today and they provide free education to children.
Abuse at Sudan's khalwa
Mohamed Nader, 14, is recovering from systematic abuse at the hands of his teachers (Jess Kelly/BBC News)
In one instance, in the well-respected Ahmed Hanafy khalwa in Darfur, a teacher whipped a small boy more than 30 times in a study room under a hot corrugated iron roof.
... https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/suda ... ols-khalwa
Re: Sudan: Investigating the 'Islamic spiritual healers' sexually abusing women
Sudan khalwas: Undercover in the schools that chain boys
Sudan khalwas: Undercover in the schools that chain boys
A BBC News Arabic investigation has uncovered systemic child abuse and evidence of sexual abuse inside Islamic schools in Sudan.
For 18 months, reporter Fateh Al-Rahman Al-Hamdani filmed inside 23 schools across the country.
Boys as young as five-years-old were routinely chained, shackled and beaten by the sheikhs or religious men in charge of the schools.
Mohamed Nader is one of those who was abused. He was imprisoned and tortured for five days, and received such a brutal beating that he nearly died.
Al-Hamdani spoke to him about what happened, his recovery, and his family's fight for justice in a country where the sheikhs still wield huge power and influence.
Reporter: Fateh Al-Rahman Al-Hamdani; Narration: Paul Bakibinga; Filmed by: Jess Kelly; Edited by: Bettina Waked; Producer: Mamdouh Akbiek; Exec Producers: Mustafa Khalili & Simon Cox
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-africa-54571814
Sudan khalwas: Undercover in the schools that chain boys
A BBC News Arabic investigation has uncovered systemic child abuse and evidence of sexual abuse inside Islamic schools in Sudan.
For 18 months, reporter Fateh Al-Rahman Al-Hamdani filmed inside 23 schools across the country.
Boys as young as five-years-old were routinely chained, shackled and beaten by the sheikhs or religious men in charge of the schools.
Mohamed Nader is one of those who was abused. He was imprisoned and tortured for five days, and received such a brutal beating that he nearly died.
Al-Hamdani spoke to him about what happened, his recovery, and his family's fight for justice in a country where the sheikhs still wield huge power and influence.
Reporter: Fateh Al-Rahman Al-Hamdani; Narration: Paul Bakibinga; Filmed by: Jess Kelly; Edited by: Bettina Waked; Producer: Mamdouh Akbiek; Exec Producers: Mustafa Khalili & Simon Cox
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-africa-54571814