Google – AFP, Edouard Guihaire (AFP), 11 December 2013
 |
A mentally
ill Afghan patient sits chained to a wall at the Mia Ali Baba holy
shrine in
the village of Samar Khel on the outskirts of Jalalabad on May 16,
2013
(AFP/File, Noorullah Shirzada)
|
Samar Khel
— All it took to land Din Muhammed in a cell at an Afghan shrine, chained up
and living on bread for 40 days, was an argument with his father.
Muhammad
was forced to undergo the traditional "cure" at the shrine of Mia Ali
Baba, outside the eastern city of Jalalabad, to rid him of evil spirits.
Even after
a decade of international funding and medical expertise pouring into
Afghanistan, many locals still believe that the grim ordeal at the shrine will
cure mental health problems -- or as they see it, possession by malevolent
"jinn" spirits.
 |
A mentally
ill Afghan patient sits chained
to a wall at Mia Ali Baba holy shrine in
the
village of Samar Khel on the outskirts
of Jalalabad on August 26, 2012
(AFP/File,
Noorullah Shirzada)
|
"I had
a big argument with my father," said Muhammed, a thin young man sitting on
a dirty blanket with heavy chains around his ankles and wrists. "I took
money from him to buy a motorbike.
"I am
very unhappy and I am angry at him that he put me here."
Muhammed,
who says he has five war wounds after serving in the Afghan army, is
incarcerated in a row of 20 miserable stone cells.
The
ceilings are low and damp, and there are no fans in the summer or heating in
the winter.
"The
patient is kept in chains for 40 days on a diet of bread with black
pepper," said Malik, the shrine supervisor.
"He is
given this to make bad spirits go away. When someone is infected by ghosts, we
read verses of the Koran, and married women without children give them amulets
to make the spirits depart."
"It
has been the same for 360 years, and thousands of people have been cured."
At the end
of the course, the "patients" are given broth made from goat's head
to complete the cleansing process.
 |
An elderly
Afghan man walks near graves at
the shrine of Mia Ali Baba in the village of
Samar Khel on the outskirts of Jalalabad,
on October 31, 2013 (AFP/File,
Massoud
Hossaini)
|
Those
undergoing the gruelling regime appear in fast-deteriorating health and barely
able to talk due to exhaustion.
"I did
not want to come, my brother forced me," said Abdul, in his 30s, in a weak
voice, unable to explain why he was sent to the shrine.
"They
told me they would take me to a doctor and they took 5,000 Afghanis ($90) from
my pocket for that. I feel dizzy and have headaches."
Abdul's
cell stinks of sweat and urine, and it is littered with trash and soiled linen.
Children approach the cell to mock him, before running away laughing as he
shakes in desperation.
Shah Temor
Mosamim, a doctor and director of a psychiatric hospital in Kabul, dismissed
the shrine's treatment as "having no basis in scientific fact".
"No
matter how aggressive a patient is, if you don't give him much food for 40
days, he will get quieter," Mosamim said.
"In
Afghanistan, there have been these traditional ways of treatment for mental
patients -- chaining them up in rooms or shrines. In some cases, patients are
suffering from depression or mental problems."
The
campaign group Human Rights Watch has called for the Mia Ali Baba shrine, named
after a 17th-century holy man, to be closed and there is also concern from
local rights activists.
"This
place should be shut down as its practices are not compatible with human
rights," said HRW researcher Heather Barr.
 |
A mentally
ill Afghan patient holds up the
chains that shackle him at the Mia Ali
Baba
holy shrine in the village of Samar
Khel on the outskirts of Jalalabad on May
16, 2013 (AFP/File, Noorullah Shirzada)
|
"Mental
health treatment is at its basic stages in Afghanistan and unfortunately has
not been a high priority for international donors in spite of the fact that
many Afghans have experiences of serious trauma."
Rafiullah
Bidar, of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, described how
families leave patients to live in appalling conditions at the shrine.
"They
think that it is the last option... we cannot ignore it," he said.
"These families are not satisfied with government medical services, that
is why they rely on the shrine.
"The
environment that the patients live in is unhealthy, they defecate and urinate
in their cells. I remember the stench and filthy environment when I
visited."
For
Muhammed and Abdul, the greatest fear is that they have been incarcerated not
to be cured -- but to die.
From their
cells, they can see the rough graves of those who never left.
"Some
families do not come back for the sick who remain for six or eight months and
sometimes die," said caretaker Mir Shafiqullah. "We bury them
here."
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