Chained up for 40 days in a bare cell: How thousands are 'cured of evil spirits' at brutal Afghan shrine (whether they are mentally ill... or just had an argument with their father)

Afghanistan's medieval 'cure' for what local believe are evil spirits sees thousands locked away every year

Men and women are chained at a local shrine and forced to live on nothing but bread for 40 days or more



Everything from mental health problems to family arguments are blamed on evil spirits, known as 'jinns'




The war in Afghanistan may have brought progress in the medical field, but the international aid has not reached the remote villages of Afghanistan where traditional 'cures' sees patients imprisoned and forced to live on nothing but bread in stinking cells at the local shrines.

The Mia Ali Baba shrine in village of Samar Khel, outside the eastern city of Jalalabad, is no different, and many locals still believe that the grim ordeal at the shrine will cure mental health problems, or as they see it, possession by 'evil spirits'.



There are a myriad of reasons why the 'patients' are locked up at the shrine, a majority forced by family members, ranging from depression to family arguments.

A man named Din Muhammed explains that he has been chained up for 40 days over a fight with his father, but some of the unfortunate are never collected from the shrine and stay for six to eight months in the shrine. Not all survive, and their bodies are buried in the yard.



Locked away: Abdul, aged 30, cannot explain why he has been chained to a wall at a holy shrine in the village of Samar Khel, on the outskirts of Jalalabad

‘I had a big argument with my father,’ said Muhammed, a thin young man sitting on a dirty blanket with heavy chains around his ankles and wrists. ‘I took money from him to buy a motorbike.

‘I am very unhappy and I am angry at him that he put me here.’Muhammed, who says he has five war wounds after serving in the Afghan army, is incarcerated in a row of 20 miserable stone cells.

The ceilings are low and damp, and there are no fans in the summer or heating in the winter.

‘The patient is kept in chains for 40 days on a diet of bread with black pepper,’ said Malik, the shrine supervisor. ‘He is given this to make bad spirits goes away. When someone is infected by ghosts, we read verses of the Koran, and married women without children give them amulets to make the spirits depart.’

‘It has been the same for 360 years, and thousands of people have been cured.’



Ancient beliefs: The 'patients' are chained up for 40 days and forced to live on nothing but bread and water as their relatives hope the incarceration will 'cure' them of evil

Begging for help: A mentally ill Afghan man rests on the ground of his filthy cell Samar Khel's holy shrine, his hands chained and padlocked

Caged: There are varying reasons for why a person is locked up at the shrine, many suffer from mental health issues, while others have had a family argument Visiting: Afghan children look on at a shrine, while a man in chains look out on the village of Samar Khel on the outskirts of Jalalabad

No escape: One of the mentally ill men smiles for the camera. Some of the 'patients' are never retrieved by their relatives and spend six to eight months at the shrine, some perishing as a result

At the end of the course, the ‘patients’ are given broth made from goat's head to complete the cleansing process.

Those undergoing the gruelling regime appear in fast-deteriorating health and barely able to talk due to exhaustion.

‘I did not want to come, my brother forced me,’ said Abdul, in his 30s, in a weak voice, unable to explain why he was sent to the shrine.

‘They told me they would take me to a doctor and they took 5,000 Afghanis (£55) from my pocket for that. I feel dizzy and have headaches.’

Abdul's cell stinks of sweat and urine, and it is littered with trash and soiled linen. Children approach the cell to mock him, before running away laughing as he shakes in desperation.

Shah Temor Mosamim, a doctor and director of a psychiatric hospital in Kabul, dismissed the shrine's treatment as ‘having no basis in scientific fact’.

‘No matter how aggressive a patient is, if you don't give him much food for 40 days, he will get quieter,’ Mosamim said.

‘In Afghanistan, there have been these traditional ways of treatment for mental patients, chaining them up in rooms or shrines. In some cases, patients are suffering from depression or mental problems.’

Few changes: Despite more than ten years of support and funding throughout the war in Afghanistan, medical progress has not reached the remote villages where tradition is king

Village life: An elderly man walks near the shrine, past the graves of 'patients' who have died while locked up to be 'cured'

Trickery: Abdul's brother forced him into the shrine where he was told he would see a doctor and charged 5,000 Afghanis, approximately £55 before they chained him

The campaign group Human Rights Watch has called for the Mia Ali Baba shrine, named after a 17th-century holy man, to be closed and there is also concern from local rights activists.

‘This place should be shut down as its practices are not compatible with human rights,’ said HRW researcher Heather Barr. ‘Mental health treatment is at its basic stages in Afghanistan and unfortunately has not been a high priority for international donors in spite of the fact that many Afghans have experiences of serious trauma.

‘Rafiullah Bidar, of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, described how families leave patients to live in appalling conditions at the shrine.

‘They think that it is the last option... we cannot ignore it,’ he said. ‘These families are not satisfied with government medical services, that is why they rely on the shrine.’

‘The environment that the patients live in is unhealthy, they defecate and urinate in their cells. I remember the stench and filthy environment when I visited.’

For Muhammed and Abdul, the greatest fear is that they have been incarcerated not to be cured, but to die. From their cells, they can see the rough graves of those who never left.