In the societies we have in South Asia, we are very often reminded of the prevailing primitive and barbaric mindsets that we have not yet been able to overcome even by the 21st century. While the developing sections of society have advanced a great deal, unfortunately amongst the superficially developed and enlightened or educated societies that we keep trying to develop, live the primitive, uneducated, naive and misguided who shock mankind at their barbaric, uncivilized, inhuman or illiterate actions every now and then. Tales of a womn being murdered because she was impure after being sexually assaulted are all too common. Marrying a woman off as compensation for a crime is also often heard of. But a greater evil still prevails in our societies; the faith healers. They command much more influence and power over the rural masses in our societies than anyone should. A perfect example has been the burning to death of a young woman by her father and brother, on advice of a faith healer, so to rid her of the evil spirits posessing her. The spirit will burn and she’d stay safe, the healer had said to the family. And they had believed him.
But are in jail now for doing so. As the poor victim, who may have been posessed by a disease, psychological problem or perhaps even a Jinn, died, because of irresponsible handling and too much faith in the faith healer.
http://dawn.com/2006/12/09/top8.htm
Unfortunate how our culture has not been able to educate and rid the masses of such primitive mindframes and issues. The faithhealer or local maulvi has enough influence to have anyone killed like this. Where has the society advanced in this regard during the past 500 yrs? These practices are still the same in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and so on. Why can’t the govt or the religous scholars address this issue and educate the masses or prevent such perverse incidents from taking place? Even before the govt, this is a task for religous scholars, but unfortunatelt they’re always too busy elsewhere. When they preach, they dont preach enlightenment, those they preach to are seldom from this section of south asian society.