Forced on Exorcism

FYI, this is one of my class informal writing, I just wanted to post it here since I don't have a lot time to write something.

She is possessed, I lost my hearing ability mysteriously due to tinnitus. Later the doctors discovered that my auditory nerves being damaged due to an unknown cause. Which become hard to explain to the illiterate world that I lived where people only understood two things, the God’s work and the work of evil. To them the good things that happen to people are the work of God and the unfortunate events that happen to people are the work of evil.

She is possessed, get the Imams from the local Mosques. She is possessed by the Jinns, that explains why she can no longer hear. The Imams would flock to my home or rather wherever I lived. They would endlessly recite verses of Quran on me and on the property, they would make me holy water by slightly spitting in tons of jerry-cans filled with water. They would do this repeatedly every so often because my family were so convinced that a colony of Jinns were residing in my head causing me to become hearing loss.

She is possessed, get the fortune teller. The fortune teller or rather I call her the torture teller stripped me naked in front of two elder women, violently chopped off my favorite rooster’s head and then gently whipped the now dying rooster’s headless body against mine which its warm blood run through my back till it breathed its last breath. Then a small bowlful of herb powder mixed with water was rubbed on my hair and I was given a mini golden tea kettle of water to wash off all the blood and the herb mix. I was given neither a towel nor a wash cloth to assist me washing the blood and the herb mix. I had to dress up still soaked with the blood.  I watched my grandmother rip the rooster’s features violently like a hungry hyena to make us a fancy Pasta Maria spaghetti with chicken stew for lunch. I lost my appetite and left the chicken slaughter house. The result come in and of course as my grandmother wanted to hear. “It’s the Jinns," said the torture teller. And the treatment was two week length of exorcism.

She is possessed, take her to the culture healing center.  The room was full of women and girls from ten years to ailing elderly women, supposedly possessed by what they called Jinn or the evil. I went there regularly for four hours in a month and a half until one day the Iman who owned and operated the healing center called me and another girl to the exam-room. He then molested me during the exam in front of the other girl. However, after he realized that I was not under the possession of the Jinns he went to my home before me to tell my family his version of the story. “Congratulations! The Jinns have finally given up resistance, God has answered your prayers."  My family were over excited to hear the devastating version of my story. I had to keep it to myself because nobody would believe me anyway. They would think I was making up the whole story, so I don’t go to the healing center again. Or they would think it’s the jinns speaking and not me. The witness was his niece in-law who lived in his house. I couldn’t trust her because she was his family. Therefore, she was not a reliable witness. I spent the next day standing on the street running away from anyone who tried to convince me to go to the healing center. With a lot of threats, curses and begs I made it through the day never going back to the center.

She is possessed, at where I’m from ignorance can be bliss, people will self-diagnose you if they don’t know what is wrong with your health. Our bodies are equipped with thousand cells, nerves and veins so if anything happens to any of these listed above nobody will know what is wrong with your health except a professional doctor with his/her special equipment. Therefore, the other people will assume that it’s the Jinns. I don’t know if this is caused by the lack of health insurance where people can’t afford medical check-ups and purchase medicines. Or if it’s caused by the ignorance that people just think they know everything. Or the obsession with religion that made them believe that the Quran cures everything. I guess all of the above, my family were poor they were deeply and strictly religious, they were and still are illiterate when it come to biology or how our body functions,

I said I’m not possessed, I don’t have Jinns living in my body. I don’t need this treatment, it’s not going to help me anyway. Leave me alone. I got locked in the room with my uncle to perform his exorcism duty.

I said I’m not possessed, I don’t need thousand Imams flocking to my home every so often. I don’t need fortune tellers and their animal sacrificing rituals. I don’t need evil healer who sneaks his hand under my hijab to squeeze my breasts as if they are stress balls. or being locked in the room with my uncle to force exorcism on me. I need audiologist and professional doctors in the audio field. They kept their forced exorcism anyway.