Posted on December 3, 2011 - by mira

The jinn doctor is in

The Arabic word for “crazy”, majnoon, has the word “jinn” as its root. In Islamic teachings, jinn are spirits that live in a parallel realm and can be good or evil. Therefore, perhaps a lost meaning of the Arabic word for insane is “with jinn”.

And it was spirits that we were seeking on the trip to Radaa, one of Yemen’s least safe places to be due to constant tribal battles.

Gunshots rang out in the distance. A wedding? It was an odd time for a wedding.

After lunch at a restaurant, where Yemeni men with wild Jimi Hendrix hair and bandanas casually kept their Kalashnikovs very close to them, it was time to go meet al-Obali, one of Yemen’s famed exorcists whose reputation had spread to other Arab countries.

He received “patients” at his Yemeni-style home.

Posted on October 28, 2011 - by mira

Where every man has three guns

The young woman was draped in black all over, her hands hidden inside black gloves. Others waited behind her. She was collected but in a hurry.

On the wall behind the man, a sign had pictures of qat, a jambiya, a gun, and a red x on each one.

The young woman reached into her handbag and pulled out a handgun.