Despair and clairvoyance in Morocco
2007-02-23
In Morocco, many people put aside their doubts and seek out fortune tellers for help and encouragement in difficult times.
Text and photos by Sarah Touahri for Magharebia in Rabat – 23/02/07
 Clairvoyant Touda tells visitors that dispelling evil spirits will help them find happiness |
In the working-class district of Hay Nahda in the Moroccan capital of Rabat, a woman named Touda claims to provide counselling to people in need. Though she is not a licensed therapist, she sees about ten clients a day, and has for many years. Touda is a psychic, and tells all newcomers that she "inherited the job" from her aunt some 20 years ago. Wearing her usual green dress and red scarf, she starts each new consultation with the same phrase: "I shall try to dispel the evil spirits torturing you so that you can find happiness once more." A cloud of incense hangs heavy in the air, spreading its penetrating aroma. The lighting is subdued.
Like many in her line of work, Touda has achieved some measure of success. On the day Magharebia visited her "practice", there were eight women patiently awaiting their turn in the lobby. One could easily think they were waiting for a renowned medical doctor. Some seemed uneasy and tormented. Others chatted away calmly.
"Fate plays some clever games. I’m at the edge of a chasm, and no one realises," one disoriented-looking woman who refused to give her name said. "All I hear is words that hurt and leave gaping wounds." At 42 years of age, she is not yet married. The pitying looks of her friends and neighbours cause her daily suffering, she said. Success in her career as a bank official has failed to bring the serenity she has sought so fervently. "At the moment, it is despair that guides me. The most ridiculous thing is that I know full well that clairvoyants cannot do anything. But all the same, they manage to give me some new hope. I need, at least, to be heard."
Next to her, El Hajja Zahra came to Touda for her son. "My son is 30 and has not yet worked, even though he has a French literature degree. I’m in anguish. Perhaps Touda will comfort me and give me something to thwart the bad luck," she said, her eyes filled with tears.
Despair in the face of an intractable situation and the vital need to regain a glimmer of hope lead people to believe in the impossible and in mysterious forces, according to psychologist Jamal Eddine Saoudi. He explains that clairvoyants exploit this condition, to dramatise reality and to ascribe excessive importance to trivial incidents. "There’s also a pressing desire to re-take control of one’s life. Because of this fact, clairvoyant consultations seem to be attractive … in the eyes of the general public."
Sociologist Hatim Maaroufi points out that social unrest is at the heart of this expanding phenomenon. "It goes without saying that unemployment, crisis, emotional solitude ... are the breeding ground for a social unease which pushes … desperate people to seek help and comfort from clairvoyants, who make the most of this opportunity to swindle people."
 "It’s not as if the few pathetic Dirhams they pay me will ruin them," aspiring clairvoyant Souad says. |
He explains that clairvoyance has always had an important part to play in society because it helps to maintain "hope and stability". He adds that when it comes to earning easy money, nothing is simpler than setting oneself up as a clairvoyant. All that it requires is to learn the art of speaking.
Touda the clairvoyant has learned all the tricks. Indeed, sometimes she does not conceal the fact that she tries to play the role of psychologist, helping her clients to make strategic choices or telling them what they want to hear. "At the start, I found it very difficult because I didn’t have any experience. But after 20 years in the job, I know how to respond in each case," she said.
Like her, Souad, a young woman who is barely 18, is trying to follow the same path, although with a different aim and methods. Still in high school, she thought about "earning an honest living", as she puts it. Most of the girls at her school believe her to be a confirmed fortune teller. Her techniques are simple. She infers certain details from what her clients say, and then she feeds them back without them realising. In other words, she says what the person wants to hear. "I predict events which have a great probability of occurring, and I push girls into acting in such a way that the prediction will come true," she says.
Souad has another ambition, however. She wants to create her own website, and is already thinking about her slogan: "I’ll be there for you to help you move towards your destiny, and so you will be able to learn your future with confidence." She says all you need to know is how to manipulate the dreams people have. And so she plans to study psychology at university: "You have to plan your future way ahead, as even with a degree I can’t dream of finding work easily."
It is easy for psychics to practice their trade, as there is no law against clairvoyance. Ahmed Sami, a professor of Islamic studies, says that Islam calls on Muslims not to believe in clairvoyants, even if they sometimes appear to be right.
But some girls are ready to believe anything, said Souad. "It’s not as if the few pathetic Dirhams they pay me will ruin them," she added.
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مغربية من فرنسا Posted 2007-02-26
In the name of the Lord, the Beneficent, the Merciful. Good Lord! This phenomenon is prevalent in all Arab countries. Morocco has become an ordinary thing for citizen for lack of knowledge and faith. This is the important thing. The clairvoyant is not the error but from man himself. Instead of resorting to patience by helping oneself with religion, they go to a person who is herself desperate to have a decent life how can she offer it to someone else. African countries like Senegal and others is much worse than our Morocco. Please do not tarnish its nice image. We hope to hear better news but the witches and sorcery is quite normal even if all are repressed, others erupt as long as ignorance is prevalent let us fight it and we will be better. By an expatriate Moroccan journalist!
جعبوب Posted 2007-02-27
The psychic will never really be a winner anywhere!
nejd Posted 2007-02-28
Nejd from Morocco what you saud in your article is true in Morocco, but it does exist in all maghrebi countries, there will always be, in the five countries, people who will have those beliefs. I'm not defending them, but I don't understand why your site always insist to give a negative image of Morocco. Un this country there are great projects who are launched in industry, roads, building, offshores human rights and you won't find them in an other maghrebi country. YOU SHOULD BE OBJECTIVE
mustapha d'alger Posted 2007-03-01
Paranormal phenomenon is not new, but still remains present. It is a vital need, concerning all sectors of population, including our leaders. It is not a traditional thing, it modernized and conquered most developed countries. Let us only fight fake clairvoyants.
nejd Posted 2007-03-01
Why don't you publish the comment i sent to you?
مصطفى Posted 2007-03-03
The Lord Defines the livelihood of everyone. Some subsistence sources increase with the spread of ignorance and despair!
sebbouh Posted 2007-04-02
I feel lost in my own family life, I don't know what do do... My name is Suzanne, I've been married for 9 years and I have two children...Thanks for helping me to understand what's happening in my family life.
karamil Posted 2007-10-28
Sorcery is a reality which cannot be ignored in our Arabic societies whatever we do to hide it.
nour Posted 2007-11-11
I share the same opinion as Mr. Lostpha: it is God who defines each and everyone of our lives.
jihan Posted 2007-11-30
Be realistic: witchcraft does exist.
yoyo Posted 2007-12-03
This is an evidence of weakness of faith. With greetings of Maradona.
omlkir Posted 2008-01-15
Thank you.
mahmoud Posted 2008-01-19
In the name of God. Peace and prayer on the most honourable prophet, our master Mohamed, peace and prayer on him, his family and companions. If each of us were to stop and think with his mind, we would discover fascinating facts in the spiritual and medicine world. If we would read the books of Ibn Sina in spiritual medicine, if we contemplate the knowledge of this upright sheikh and looked for the causes of his success in medicine, we would have found that this scientific on medicine and wisdom, we would have found that his thinking was with his mind, and this the biggest secret of success. People should think with their minds not with their thoughts compared to modern medicine. Doctors in our era received their science with their thoughts, their science was therefore confined to their instruments, if the medical instrument were taken from them, you will find that they are void and possess nothing because they learned and received science with thoughts and their hearts are devoid of their conviction that healing comes from God alone. I don’t blame them in this because they ignored original science which is the Book of God and the tradition of Mohamed peace and prayer on him.
fatie Posted 2008-01-21
I am a seventeen-year-old chick. I am looking for a clairvoyant who can tell my future, but it needs to be free of charge and by email.
hanane Posted 2008-02-25
I would like to get the phone number for a Moroccan clairvoyant who lives in Paris.
khalo Posted 2008-03-09
Hello, I just read all these opinions, but I must tell you that I have already consulted a clairvoyant. Without giving her anything to go on, she told of things that did come to pass. How do you explain that!? There are people of calling upon the spirits to gather information about the future. If you want proof of this, it is in our Prophet Mohamed. Whenever someone would let fly a grizzly talon at him, the night before would have him dream of this. As for the rest of the story, you can find it yourself. In any case, there are those on this earth who are good, mediocre and bad. In this way, both sorcerers and clairvoyants exist.
siham Posted 2008-03-19
My name is Siham and I am from Morocco. I came to this website because I am doing research on clairvoyance in Morocco. What I would like to say, though, is that God alone defines each person’s life and destiny. We need to fight against clairvoyance!!!
محمود Posted 2008-03-23
I want to know everything about myself.
فاطمه Posted 2008-04-14
I am married and have a child. I have been in constant dispute with my husband for over a year. Sometimes I am at the house of my family and sometimes at my husband’s. I want to know whether I will be divorced or not. Please write to my email. I am from Saudi Arabia. And if possible, please give me the number of any fortune teller anywhere. A humane service, may God protect you oh Lord.
mahmoud Posted 2008-04-17
Spiritual science is a science which has emerged long ago. It has many forms but it has preserved its content. It is a science of the hidden which has persevered despite the emergence of modern sciences which focus on the body and its sufferings, the mind and the soul didn’t find a place in this world. And since the human being is a body and soul, it looks for treatment for this soul as he does for the body. Do you know that the spiritual science is one of the most sublime and outstanding sciences. It is a science which transcends witchcraft and immorality. Moreover, this science cannot make those who work in it enter the hidden world. Other acts remain frozen compared to knowing the essence of this science which is governed by spiritualities in a psychological and physical communication ruled by sanctity and delineated by monasticism beyond the matter transcending lusts. This is a simplified definition of spiritualities science.
Anonymous Posted 2008-04-28
Witchcraft is a dishonourable profession.
حنان من المغرب Posted 2008-05-24
I think that witchcraft exists, I suffered from it, it separated me from my husband. What do you think?
مليكة رجب Posted 2008-05-24
In the name of God most gracious most merciful. I thank everyone who contributed to this site with his opinions. But I would like to express an opinion. If the human being is immersed in a circle of problems with its different forms including health and emotional, I confirm to you these problems with all their forms. What makes things worse is that the human being, in addition to these problems, the enemies of God add to him witchcraft. So how can the sick person be treated and find his rest? If course conviction in God and belief are the only treatment to this person who is overwhelmed with trouble considering that he finds all doors closed in his face. So how can he be still rely just on reason and wisdom and the latter was robbed and destroyed as a result of the base acts, in other words, witchcraft, God forbids. We are really in an era where there is no wisdom.
aicha Posted 2008-06-03
Hello, In my opinion, clairvoyance or, rather, charlatanism, is a notorious and very important theme deeply affecting many Muslims. This is a reality we are living through every day and it is threatening our society profoundly. This scourge is propagating in a remarkable way, amid diverse social categories and with a serious impact for the fight against this type of practice. I think that the ideal prey—the prey easiest to trap—for the charlatans are people who are weak or weakened by their problems and frustrations of life as well as a weakness in their belief in Islam and our singular God, Who is the only Clairvoyant and is Omnipotent. He is the only One able to know our destinies. Our paths are already traced by Him even before our births. I admit that what the clairvoyants say to us from time to time is true and right. However, this just means that they possess super powers so as to know the future, but this is just simply the help of the Devil, our enemy and also the enemy of our God. And, if we go back to our noble Qur'an, we find the beautiful phrase written by Allah that summarises our situations: if a clairvoyant knows the unknowable, then why doesn’t he himself benefit from this knowledge and why can’t he avoid evil before it gets to him? Let us not forget that our Prophet, who brought the issue to a close before it even began, said—and this is really powerful: “The clairvoyants will be lying even if they tell the truth”. In my opinion, if every one of us goes back to the Qur'an, without a doubt we will find a thousand convincing and sufficient pieces of evidence so as to never believe in a clairvoyant. We must ask God for help with each of our problems. Thank you
عبد السلام Posted 2008-06-27
The promise of God will come soon.
bela Posted 2008-08-13
I want to know everything about myself.
Ali ben Hadj Posted 2008-08-15
Witchcraft in Morocco should be expanded upon in order to treat psychological and physical illnesses. The principle is simple: yell out what you desire with a certain intonation or melody that expresses your will, your depression and the way to execute your request. And, likewise, you must visualise what you want, such as healing a loved one, succeeding in your studies, living correctly. Those are just a few examples. May Allah fulfill all your wishes. But, be careful not to ask for bad things in your future, because, if you take to evil-doing, then it will return upon your and your loved ones. Stay strong!
fitou Posted 15 days ago
This is what I call ignorance.
Nayla Posted 4 days ago
I am looking for a good clairvoyant. My husband left me because he was bewitched by his mother and I want to get him back. I am hopeless and I have a child who cries after him. I promised him to return his father to our home. Indeed, he was an exemplary father, but people do not always want to do what is right by you. If anybody knows a good address, do not hesitate to email me the contact information. Thank you in advance.
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