The Ministry of Education has commented on the incident in the Atyrau region involving a 5-year-old girl and a so-called healer who “expelled an evil spirit from her.”
"This incident is extremely unacceptable and causes deep concern. The Committee for the Protection of Children's Rights of the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan has already taken control of the situation," the press service of the Committee for the Protection of Children's Rights of the Ministry of Education reported, as quoted by KazTAG .
The department added that the child is now provided with all necessary assistance, including psychological support. A regional children's rights commissioner is also working on site.
"Any such actions that threaten the health and well-being of a child are unacceptable. The Ministry reminds of the need to comply with laws and regulations that ensure the protection of children's rights in Kazakhstan," the committee concluded.
What happened
A video has appeared on social networks, in which the so-called healer Keikuat Ospanov performed a ritual to exorcise an evil spirit (genie/shaitan) from a young girl in Atyrau. He published the video on his personal blog. According to the man, the spirit of a 19-year-old girl named Lyazzat entered the child's body.
The dialogue, recorded in Kazakh, is accompanied by the child's sobbing. The girl is lying on the floor, her hands are tied, and she is being held by two people. Ospanov asks the "spirit" how it got into the girl, how old it is, and who or what "possessed" it.
In another video, the girl's mother answers Ospanov's questions. According to her, she and her daughter live in the Almaty region, and the "spirit" allegedly entered the child immediately after birth. When asked how she understood this, the woman mentioned the words of a kindergarten teacher that the girl looks grown up and lively.
The girl's mother brought her to the session herself
After the video caused a stir, the child’s mother and the “healer” himself commented on the situation, Astana TV channel reports .
The woman said that she brought her daughter to this session herself: "He did not use any violence against my daughter. I brought her to him myself, he examined her in front of me, read suras. My daughter feels great."
Ospanov himself said that he has been practicing this practice for the past 9 years and is a member of the Saktar spiritual folk medicine center. According to him, the service of exorcising a spirit costs him about 20-30 thousand tenge.
"We held her together, because it is difficult for one person to hold her, sometimes even five men can barely hold her. This is my profession. I exorcised the genies from her in 10 minutes. I posted the video as a review and did not know that it would spread so much," said Keikuat Ospanov.
Keikuat Ospanov calls himself a representative of Islamic medicine. His social media page contains dozens of videos in which he “exorcises jinn.”
What the imam said
The chief imam of the Atyrau region, Altynbek Utyskhanuly, said that he does not control the actions of healers. However, according to him, there are many people in the region who bring "possessed" relatives.
"In 2009, he worked in our mosque for about two months. Now, as a folk healer, he helps residents. Our mosques do not have a special service for exorcising jinn. There are not even special rooms. This is not part of the main task of a cleric," the imam said.
Children's ombudsman Dinara Zakieva also responded to the situation, noting that the police are already conducting an investigation into this incident.
Subscribe to our Telegram channel
Cover: Illustrative photo / unsplash