The power of magic spells still thrives in the Arab popular culture and a human rights body has been recently called up to help cast away a magic spell on a woman and her house. A 53-year-old woman from Makkah has blamed a spell for separating her from her parents and siblings for over 35 years. Her agony was compounded when she was also separated from her own seven children too by another mysterious spell. Two men and two women are believed to have cast the spell on her, she said. Whenever they are in their mom's house, the children see ghosts and have nightmares, prompting them to leave the house, she said. “I am living in Qimat Al-Qawz in Makkah away from my parents for more than three decades,” said Ma'enah. “I never leave my house and I don't want my parents and brothers to visit me.” Najlaa Damanhori, the supervisor of the women's department at the Human Rights Commission, said that their team visited Ma'enah's house and has prepared a report. Ma'enah's husband divorced her and took their seven children with him leaving her all alone in the ‘ghost' house, she said. But after eight years, she was able to bring back her children to her house. But the ‘ghost' house was not what most of her children wanted, leaving the mother behind. Two children remained with their mother only to leave spooky lives inside the house. After dark nights and unknown ghosty figures moving around the house, Fatima, one of the two children, soon left the house to live in the Central Area of Makkah. Sultan, the other child, is still there but “always staying in his room and doesn't want to talk to me and gets his food through the window of the room,” said Ma'enah. When contacted for reasons to leave her mother's house, Fatima said her mother's house scares her. “I see ghosts and always wake on nightmares,” said Fatima. “I love my mother and I wish she could come out purified of the spell she speaks about,” she said. “We all wish we could live with her again,” she said. Fatima has approached the Human Rights Commission and they have promised to provide her a house. “They also promised to issue a national ID card to me, but still nothing has been done.” Fatima says she has turned down about nearly 15 marriage proposals and she is regularly visiting some Sheikhs to treat her through the Qur'anic recitation. “Fatima herself has some psychological problems and is being treated in the mental hospital,” said Damanhori of the human rights body. Damanhori, however, is unsure whether the family was really a victim of sorcery but the rights body has approached the Health Affairs Department in Makkah on the issue. “It's very important that the Health Affairs sends a medical team to examine the mother and her children,” said Najlaa. “The Commission is trying now to provide a house to Fatima since she refuses to live with her family.”
