Contrary to what the title might indicate, I'm not going to write a philosophical treaty on the meaning of life and how religion fits into it all (it could be interesting, but I frankly don't have the time right now). This is more of a reaction to an article that I recently discovered (thanks to Facebook yet again...I'm really starting to get impressed). It describes the situation of Chechen women who are abducted at a young age and then forced to marry their kidnappers (it is estimated that one in five marriages occurs like this). And if that weren't enough, dissident young brides are brought to an exorcist who will try to extirpate the "genie" that is planting such ideas into their heads. Now let's take a moment to ponder on that shall we? GENIES?? Seriously?? What else? The tooth fairy is the one who secretly makes us believe that going to the dentist is painful? Elves and garden gnomes are the ones who fill my pool with algae and make the water all green? The world of Harry Potter is real and the latest economic crisis is just another one of Voldemort's clever schemes to rid the world of muggles? Now I know that logic isn't one of religion's strong points (my excuses to the few rational believers out there, I know that some of you are actually making an effort to render religion plausible), but in this case it's really not that hard to tie two and two together (P.S: it makes four!). You force someone to do something they do not want to do and they will not be happy. End of the story. No magical creatures and haunting souls need to intervene. It happens by itself. And the worst of it is that, sometimes, the women themselves are willing participants in this act and, in addition to that, they come back for more even though it is painful. I really have no words for this except for the fact that it is incredible what the human mind can accept when it is placed in extreme conditions.
Here is an excerpt from the article that really struck me:
"The patient was lying blindfolded on her back, wearing a long, flowery robe. Mairbek began yelling verses from the Koran into her ear and beating her with a short stick.
'She feels no pain,' he said. 'We beat the genie and not the patient.'
The woman, probably in her early twenties, was writhing on the bed: 'Shut up! Leave me alone,' she growled.
Mairbek claimed this strange voice belonged to the genie possessing her. He shouted back: 'Take your claws out of this woman. Aren't you ashamed? Go on! Leave her body like you did last time, through her toe.'
With a deadpan expression, Mairbek explained that the genie inside the girl was 340 years old.
He was not a Muslim - he was a Russian man called Andrei and he had fallen in love with his victim.
The genie was so jealous that he made her leave her husband. 'It was a tough case,' he added. This was already the seventh time he had treated this patient.
[...]I asked Mairbek if he always blamed the genies for marital breakdown. Perhaps, I suggested, some women are traumatised by being abducted and forced into marriage or by losing their children?
Mairbek was dismissive.
'We have so many young girls with these problems. I had a patient today whose genie tells her she should divorce, that her husband doesn't love her; that she shouldn't stay in an unhappy marriage for the sake of the children.'
'But that's just the genie trying to get its own way and we have to put a stop to that,' he said."
You can find the full article here.
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