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UAE: Woman seeks help from 'sorcerer' for marital issues; gets robbed

Dubai - Witchcraft and sorcery are forbidden under the Sharia (Islamic) law, the public prosecution stressed.

Authorities in the UAE have highlighted the dangers of dealing with people who claim to have special powers to solve marital disputes or other family problems.

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The UAE Public Prosecution said witchcraft and sorcery are forbidden as they leave people vulnerable to fraud.

The authority highlighted a case in which a woman’s house was robbed by the very man who claimed he had the power to solve her marital issues.

The prosecution said a woman, Salma (name changed), began to see changes in her husband’s behaviour three years into their marriage.

He apparently did not care about her and began spending most days outside the home.

An aggrieved Salma confided in her neighbour that she suspected her husband was having an affair.

The neighbour, in turn, told her she had heard about people who had ‘supernatural’ powers. Salma immediately began to look for someone like this on social media.

She finally met a man on social media. He told her he could “reveal what was hidden” and restore love between spouses.

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Every time she visited the man, he would ask her to leave her bag and personal belongings in the waiting room.

A few days later, he asked Salma to accompany him to her husband’s workplace, where she could purportedly meet his lover. But they did not find anyone there.

On returning home, Salma found that all her jewellery and cash was stolen. It emerged later that the man had sent his assistant to rob the house as he took Salma with him on a wild goose chase.

Witchcraft and sorcery are forbidden under the Sharia (Islamic) law, the public prosecution stressed.

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In December 2019, the Abu Dhabi Police had arrested a European woman who allegedly practised witchcraft.

The woman allegedly used her apartment in the city to meet her clients, whom she would communicate with on social media. She claimed that she could address psychological problems and family issues through her practices for a sum of money.

In May this year, the Dubai Customs said it recorded 35 attempts to smuggle materials used in witchcraft and sorcery over the past three years.