In Chechnya, they took up fortune telling

In Chechnya, the authorities took up the activities of traditional healers and fortune-tellers. On February 10, in the assembly hall of the Grozny City Hall, the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, held a special meeting where the harm of false witchcraft was discussed. Kadyrov gathered not only officials, but also the healers and fortune tellers themselves. Among them were, according to the official website of the Chechen government, a healer who treated cerebral palsy with a bottle opener, and a fortune teller who cast love spells with the help of a spirit named Nichols.

Kadyrov demanded that fortune tellers and healers stop their activities. He promised to prosecute those who disobeyed under Russian law. However, the press service did not specify which legal acts of the Russian Federation the leader of the Chechen Republic had in mind. Traditional healers and fortune tellers promised Kadyrov no longer to engage in their trade.

The fight against fortune tellers in the republic has been going on since last year under the leadership of the Deputy Mufti of Chechnya, Magomed Khitanaev. He told PublicPost how healers are identified: “The search for healers and the study of their work were carried out by employees of the Grozny Medical Islamic Center. In this center, people are treated for obsession with jinn by reading the Koran, hijama is practiced, that is, bloodletting. A group of specialists from this center investigated the activities of healers ".

According to Khitanaev, 50 fake healers were identified in the republic: “We found most of them through advertising. They actively advertised wherever they could. Specialists from the Islamic center checked what books the healers worked from, whether they even had a medical diploma or some confirmation of their ability to heal. For example, we also found people who allegedly expelled genies (read about how genies are expelled in Dagestan in a special report by PublicPost - editor’s note). "They harmed many people. For example, they brought in more jinn instead of expelling them. In general, many people suffered from these charlatans, since until recently no one monitored their activities."

While in neighboring Dagestan there are often attacks on fortune tellers and healers, there is no data on such cases in Chechnya. But this does not mean that fortune tellers are not persecuted in Chechnya, a source in the government of the republic told PublicPost: “They began to actively persecute them three years ago, when the Medical Islamic Center opened in Grozny. The center’s employees collected a detailed card index of healers in Chechnya, and then began working with journalists to go to these healers and fortune tellers, where they scolded the fortune tellers directly on camera, urging them to quit their work, then they showed the houses of several fortune tellers, who nevertheless returned to their work, and, of course, they did this. such as unknown persons, but it was presented as if these were deceived people. The fortune tellers themselves and their relatives, of course, did not report such attacks to the police at all. There were also cases where several healers were even killed, but these same facts were hushed up by their relatives themselves. Moreover, there were two incidents when the husband of one woman killed a healer who, under the guise of treatment, almost raped this woman.”

Among the clients of fortune tellers in Chechnya were also high-ranking officials, a source told PublicPost: “In Grozny, many will tell you a funny story that happened to one minister. He had too high ambitions. He often went to Nalchik to see a witch, and left more than one thousand dollars there In a very short time, he occupied not the last post in the government of the republic. Other officials, having learned about the successes of the minister, found that sorceress, and they say that Kadyrov saw this recording. Well, now he is going to prison. a used silver "Nine". Let him thank God that he is alive."

PublicPost spoke with one of the Chechen fortune tellers, who introduced herself as Zara Akhmedova. “I got the gift of clairvoyance from my grandmother, and I predict people’s fate,” said the fortune teller. “And imams from the Islamic center came to my house last fall. I barely persuaded them not to show me on TV. That was for me.” like a black mark. I never deceived people, I said what I see. And I told people that their future depends on themselves and everything can change. I didn’t take money on purpose.

According to the fortune teller, she rarely accepts anyone since last year - only through the recommendations of trusted people: “But I can’t hide my gift. I’m looking for an apartment in Dagestan, in the city of Khasavyurt, so that the Chechens don’t have to travel far to see me.”

Note that in Islam, both fortune telling itself and going to a fortune teller are considered a grave sin.