this post was submitted on 08 Aug 2023
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This is the best summary I could come up with:
A hidden world of sex abuse and exploitation by men working as "spiritual healers" has been uncovered by BBC Arabic.
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.
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.
In Sudan, a woman named Sawsan told us that when her husband left the family home to live with a second wife - as is his right under Sharia (Islamic law) - she found herself destitute, and approached a healer for help.
In Sudan, Dr Alaa Abu Zeid, head of the family and society department at the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, was initially reluctant to believe that so many women had reported experiences of abuse to us.
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