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The Catastrophes Issue

Et Spiritus Sancti

On a recent trip to predominantly Muslim Chechnya, photojournalist Olga Kravets found an Islamic medical centre in Grozny where women suspected to be possessed by the devil go through a violent procedure to "get rid of their demons".

People entering the Islamic medical centre in Grozny. The exorcists receive hundreds of patients every day.

On a recent trip to predominantly Muslim Chechnya, photojournalist Olga Kravets found an Islamic medical centre in Grozny where women suspected to be possessed by the devil (i.e. are troublesome or suffering from mental issues) go through a violent procedure to “get rid of their demons”. Chechnya isn’t exactly the best place to live if you were born with tits, with a president wanting to create an Islamic society and campaigning for things like polygamy and honour killings. Technically, this southern Russian federal republic is governed by the Russian Constitution, which guarantees equal rights for women and a separation of church and state. But still, their president thinks he has been given carte blanche to violate it. Either the Kremlin has lost control over the region, or it’s their way of thanking him for keeping the Islamic separatists, blamed for both Chechen-Russian wars these past 15 years, in check. Who knows? But let’s not go into that whole war-crimes-poisoned-journalists political mess. The fact is, these women are in need of mental health care and are instead receiving violent exorcism “treatment”.

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Vice: Hi Olga, what’s going on in these pictures you sent us?

Olga Kravets:

It’s an exorcism clinic in Grozny, Chechnya with an emergency exorcism service open at night, where people bring their daughters or wives if they think they’re possessed by the devil. As the woman enters, the exorcists start reading the Koran and if she starts screaming, they say she has the devil in her. They then take her to another room, push her down on a couch and give her an eastern, lavender-like scent to smell. They also press two spots on her neck, but I couldn’t tell exactly where, and then, suddenly, she starts talking with a different tone, which is assumed to be the devil’s voice. The exorcists then talk to this devil, saying things like, “Hello, who are you?” and the “devil” answers.

Wait, the women start talking with a different voice, having a conversation as if they were a devil?

Yes! I really don’t have an explanation. I believe they are being hypnotised, probably from those spots on the neck being pressed.

What happens next?

There’s a long process during which the woman gets totally hysterical and is handled violently, thrown on the ground and held with force, beaten, and then finally the exorcists say, “I’m converting you to Islam. You will now become good to people and you have to fly to Mecca.” If the exorcists succeed, the devil becomes Muslim and supposedly flies away to Mecca. They told me that if the devil is alcoholic, it’s hard to get rid of it, as it’s either asleep or drunk. I asked the two exorcists if they could draw me a picture of what the devil looks like, and they made two very different drawings.

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Did you try to talk to the women?

Yes, but they weren’t so talkative as they were exhausted after the intense procedure. One woman told me her husband divorced her because of her bad behaviour, so her mother brought her to the centre. She said, “Now that I’m cured, I hope my husband will come back.” I also saw an old lady who couldn’t walk when she came in, but then left the centre on her own feet.

This couple brought a female relative and are waiting for their turn to be received by an exorcist.

How come only women are brought there?

It’s such a patriarchal society; no man would ever come to think that they might be possessed by the devil. Women are suppressed and if a husband finds his wife complicated; he’ll just take her to the clinic to get the devil out of her body.

Do the women believe in it?

I would say so, yes. When they are brought there they’re in a very strange state. I’d say, generally, they need a psychiatrist. But because it’s Chechnya and it’s a certain kind of society, they go to the Islamic healer instead.

How common is this practice?

Oh! A huge amount of women go through it. I took a picture of the register book and, only during the day I was there, they had 207 patients. I suspect there are more of these centres, but so far I haven’t heard of any.

How did you find out about it?

I’m working on a photo project about Grozny, together with two other photographers, and one of my tasks was to cover religion. Chechnya is predominantly Muslim, and even though Islam is a very visual religion that makes for beautiful pictures, people have seen enough of women-in-veil and praying-in-the-mosque photos. An old lady, knowing I was looking for something special, told me about this Islamic medical centre. I went to check it out last November, but they only gave me an interview, and what’s an interview when I’m a photographer?

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So how did you take these pictures?

I went back again in March and luckily managed to talk to one of the exorcists. Strongly believing in this practice and also writing a PhD thesis on it, he let me tag along for a day to depict the whole procedure, probably seeing it as good publicity. I ended up on friendly terms with this guy and he promised that next time he’d bring me along to the raid against witches.

He invited you to go on a witch hunt?

Yes. They have a special Islamic police unit hunting down women who read your future on cards and stuff like that, fortune-tellers.

Jeez. Are you going on that?

Of course! I haven’t seen any witch-hunt stories and I’m sure it’s going to be action-filled.

For more of Olga Kravets’ work, visit olgakravets.com. She has also founded the first Russian photo collective together with some photographer friends in 2009, versoimages.com.

This woman was young and unmarried and her family refused to speak. Here she is going through the process of exorcism that usually takes between 30 minutes to an hour, but some of the women I met there had been treated for eight months.

She got hysterical, so the exorcists covered her eyes, because they didn’t want her to see what they were doing to her—reading the Koran and trying to negotiate with Jinn (an Arabic word for devil, from the Koran) while pressing her down and beating her when she was shaking badly.

This is when the exorcists had just finished and freed her hands to let her rest. She was totally exhausted.

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This is Musa, one of the exorcists. After the procedure, they switch on the stereo playing prayer CDs while the woman is resting, so that they can go out for a smoke.

A patient described this view from one of the medical centre’s windows as marvellous, while going through the process of expelling an evil spirit from her body.

Musa always wears a silver ring, as he believes the Jinns, or devils, are afraid of silver.

This is Musa’s desktop. The stick is used to beat the women if they move too much. I never saw him using the syringe, but he has it for some reason.

I asked both Musa and Mairbek, two of the exorcists, to draw what they think a devil looks like.

This is Musa’s drawing of a Jinn.

And this is the devil Mairbek drew.

Many leave the Islamic medical centre in the night and there is always at least one healer on overnight duty.