Why Highly Educated Females Still Believe In Sorcery?

Tunisians were shocked on Monday night after Les quatre vérités (The Four Truths) investigation program presented testimonies of Tunisian women who were exploited by a charlatan, who, through a Facebook page, was providing services to remove witchcraft through sexual intercourse.

According to the victims, the intercourse was to liberate them of magic.

The sorcerer was asking those women to rent a house so he will be able to have sex to allegedly remove magic and get the” jinn” out of them.

In Arabic mythology, the jinn are spirits inhabiting the earth but unseen by humans, and they are capable of exercising extraordinary powers.

Despite being highly educated, many women in the Arab world still believe in sorcery, paying a lot of money in order to marry, have children, or for future predictions.

 

Treatment Through Sexual Sessions

Tunisian authorities arrested a person presenting himself as a "spiritual healer," after a television report of The Four Truths revealing his sexual exploitation of hundreds of women, to allegedly treat them from witchcraft and other diseases.

After The Four Truths program, Tunisians were very shocked after presenting testimonies of two Tunisian women who confessed that they had been raped and sexually exploited by this “spiritual healer.”

Through a plotted event, The Four Truths investigators recorded the so-called Belgacem with a hidden camera, he admitted that he had treated between 800 and 900 women through sexual sessions, for a fee of more than 200 Tunisian dinars (60 dollars).

A journalist from The Four Truths went to Belgacem home and claimed she needed his help.

As he did with the other victims, he asked her to rent a house for a 14-sexual-session treatment claiming she will soon get rid of witchcraft.

It is estimated that between 800 and 900 Tunisian women were subjected to deception and sexual exploitation.

Online activists said if this story was presented in a dramatic work, it would have been considered offensive to Tunisian society.

After the report, they demanded the arrest and trial of the charlatan for what he committed against many women and girls.

 

Sorcery and Blackmailing

Belgacem was using a Facebook page to offer his services and lure his customers, who were all women, claiming that he has the ability to remove black magic, treat skin diseases and solve the problem of delayed childbearing or marriage, through sexual intercourse.

The 56-year-old man was secretly taking photos of the women, then he blackmailed them and threatened to post their photos.

The Four Truths invited one of his victims, a 25-year-old student, who said that she was sexually exploited for 3 years by this "therapist" and that she convinced other victims of his supernatural abilities to solve all problems, and succeeded in attracting them to have sexual relations.

The General Administration of National Security announced in a statement the arrest of Belgacem who deludes his victims to follow special treatment methods after he convinces them that they are sick and that the treatment requires sexual intercourse.

The security agents seized 3 mobile phones and a camera; the photos and videos were enough to condemn him.

Belgacem acknowledges he is guilty and he deliberately deceived his victims by following a spiritual treatment to satisfy his sexual desires.

For her part, the spokeswoman for the Court of First Instance in Ariana, Tunis,  Fatima Boukataya said, in media statements, that this person will appear before the judge after two victims, two sisters studying at the university, born in 1996 and 2000, filed a complaint against him.

She pointed out that the first inspection of his official Facebook page showed that the number of victims was between 12 and 13 girls, but she said there will be more victims.

 

Highly Educated

Witchcraft and sorcery are among the most prominent social phenomena that are prevalent, especially in Arab societies.

Most of those who resort to sorcery are well educated and socially mature to make judgments and decisions and take proper action in face of problems.

Expert on psychology, Guita Ghiati, explained to Al-Estiklal that “education and knowledge represent power, and people feel they are able to do what they want to, so when failing in achieving something, those people seek to control by all means, even through sorcery, the goal is to regain this power again, so the reason may be the need to regain this control.”

“We even know that kings and presidents throughout history resorted to fortune-tellers, but unfortunately we do not have proof or statistics to confirm or deny, and therefore the issue remains ambiguous,” she added.

According to Ghiati, a person does not resort to sorcery until he or she becomes totally desperate. “Actually, this person may know that resorting to sorcery will not solve his problem, but he is trying out of hope to find a solution; in most cases, he will pay a lot of money and open the doors for further problems.”

Despair, weakness, and loneliness make people unaware and unable to think, that all they think of is quick results, to finally find themselves in the arms of charlatans.