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An Islamic exorcist has made the bizarre claim that beautiful women are more likely to be possessed by evil spirits.

Mallam Luthfi Jamal-Baba, an Imam and exorcist from Ghana, west Africa, said that although men can be inhabited by 'jinns' (spirits), beautiful women are more prone to possession.

He said: “Some of the jinns are stubborn and when the victim is in a trance, they become violent and try to attack the exorcist during the exercise."

"When it happens that way, the victims are tied with a rope and sometimes chained to chairs to keep them calm."

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Jamal-Baba says he recites verses from the Quran to exorcise believers and usually has assistants to pin the victims down when they get violent during the procedure.



However, Mallam Mohammad, another exorcist believes that caning victims during exorcism gets the jinns out more quickly.

"The victims, at that moment, do not feel the pain. The jinns are the ones who feel the pain and it is at this moment, together with the Quranic recitation, that they flee," Mohammad said.

He added that the only way to prevent demon possession is prayer, not wearing revealing clothes and bathing.

Imams like Jamal-Baba and Mohammad say women possessed by jinns to talk to themselves, harm themselves and can even kill.

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A man who only gave his name as 'Aminu' said his younger sister started talking to and cutting herself when she turned 20.

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He told Ghana Web : "She locked herself up in her room most of the time and we could hear her talk to herself as if she were with someone."

Aminu’s sister was later exorcised.

But Mr Nuworza Kugbey, a clinical psychologist at the Guidance and Counselling Placement Centre at the University of Ghana, said the symptoms are likely to be related tp psychotic disorders.

“These are disorders that can be treated with both medication and psychotherapy,” Mr Kugbey said.