Sexual Abuse Allegations Emerge in Moroccan Exorcism Practices

BBC Arabic has collected the testimonies of 85 women, over a period of more than a year, who have undergone roqya sessions with 65 "raqi" in Morocco and Sudan - two countries where these practices are particularly popular. One of them is named Dalal (pseudonym). She recounts having consulted a raqi in a town near Casablanca a few years ago to treat her depression. According to her testimony, the raqi told her that the depression was caused by a "jinn lover" who had possessed her. During an individual session, he asked her to smell a perfume he described as musk. Today, she believes it was a kind of drug, as she lost consciousness.

When she woke up, the one who had never had sex before says she discovered that her underwear had been removed and that she realized she had been raped. She says she asked the raqi what he had done to her. "I said: ’Shame on you! Why did you do that to me?’ He replied: ’So that the jinns would leave your body’." Convinced that she would be blamed, she did not tell anyone about her misadventure. A few weeks later, she became pregnant. The idea of committing suicide crossed her mind. She gave up. When Dalal talked about her pregnancy to the raqi, he denied it. A traumatic experience for the young woman who had her child adopted after birth.

Like Dalal, many Moroccan and Sudanese women have had traumatic experiences. In Sudan, many women have consulted Sheikh Ibrahim. Three of the 50 women who gave their testimony accused him of sexual abuse and mistreatment. Accusations he denied. But a BBC journalist calling herself Reem pretended to be a client suffering from infertility and was able to gather more evidence. Sheikh Ibrahim told her that he would pray for her and prepared a bottle of "healing water" - known as "mahayya" - that she was to take home and drink. Reem recounts that he then sat very close to her and placed his hand on her abdomen.

When the journalist asked him to remove his hand, he simply moved it down her body, over her clothes, to her intimate parts. She said she left the room running. "It really shook me," Reem confided. Questioned by the BBC about what happened to Reem, Sheikh Ibrahim denied harassing or sexually assaulting women seeking his help, and abruptly ended the interview.