Something afoul or unexplained in the village? Find the witch!
Innocent people suspected of witchcraft have been scapegoats for the terrible and unexplained for centuries. In the 21st century, though, the most familiar you are with witches and wizards is probably the witch-positive Harry Potter series. Even the Salem witch trials date back to the 17th century, with some unfortunate pop ups in the 19th century. Sure, our collective history is tainted with systematic misdeeds. But we’ve progressed, along with science, and now we have a more nuanced understanding of the mysteries in life that for so long evaded answers, like disease, death and disaster. Not to mention, we also have due process, which means a witch trial these days in the US is literally unconstitutional.
But that’s not true everywhere in the world. In Saudi Arabia, instead of abolishing witch hunts, they’ve created a government-run Anti-Witchcraft Unit specifically designed to hunt and prosecute suspected witches.
Saudi Arabia’s Anti-Witchcraft Unit was born in 2009 out of their previously established Committee of Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (CPVPV). The CPVPV, often called the Religious Police, is tasked with enforcing Sharia law, a strict set of legal guidelines based on Islam. The CPVPV monitors many aspects of daily life such as dress code and prayer times but also handles severe crimes like theft and murder.
Witchcraft, according to Saudi Arabia’s Sharia law, is punishable by death because the use of magical spirits, commonly referred to as jinn, is an act of blasphemy. The process of arresting and prosecuting suspected sorcerers isn’t grounded in any concrete system of evidence, which has lead many human rights organizations to call for an end to the country’s witch hunting ways.
For example, an Egyptian pharmacist living in Saudi Arabia was beheaded in 2007 for allegedly casting spells to break up a marriage and also for desecrating the Koran by placing it in a bathroom. According to The Atlantic, authorities were first alerted to the man by members of a mosque in Riyadh after finding a Koran in the mosque’s restroom. He was then accused of witchcraft after the CPVPV found foul smelling herbs, black magic books and candles in his apartment. The man later admitted to adultery and leaving the Koran in the restroom, but the kicker was the accusation of witchcraft, which ended up costing him his life.
In 2009, the Anti-Witchcraft Unit was born alongside a state-run hotline for citizens to call to report suspected witches. The unit’s goal is to apprehend witches and reverse the effects of their spells, according to The Jerusalem Post. The Anti-Witchcraft Unit arrested over 118 individuals for practicing witchcraft in the first year of its existence. According to The Atlantic, the unit arrested and prosecuted over 801 individuals by the end of 2012.
With so many people getting slapped with witchcraft accusations, human rights watchdogs have been trying, and failing, to push for reform. Many of the organizations believe the government’s system of Sharia law is to blame for the massive amount of witchcraft arrests. Since Saudi Arabia doesn’t have an explicit systematic approach for testing witches, the sentencing of suspected witches usually falls to a judge. Groups like Amnesty International believe these judges are charging people with witchcraft unfairly because they know it is a sure-fire way of prosecuting individuals who exercise freedom of speech or freedom of religion, according to Foreign Policy.
People most at risk for being accused of witchcraft are foreign workers living in Saudi Arabia. Immigrant workers usually don’t speak fluent Arabic, therefore, when they are accused of a misdeed they cannot defend themselves adequately. Workers must also be cautious when fighting for better working conditions because it is not uncommon for employers to accuse disgruntled employees with witchcraft in order to save their own reputation.
The Anti-Witchcraft Unit not only proves that Saudi Arabia is serious about enforcing Sharia law, it also means that the belief in magic is institutionalized. So for all the witches and wizards out there, now you know which borders to keep your sorcery out of.
