Pir Sahab's orders: Don't breast-feed your child or eat meat

Her baby suffered from recurring infections since she was fasting throughout her pregnancy on pir sahib's insistence.

Saadia Khan November 01, 2013
Recently, a two-month old boy, Faizan, was brought to the hospital where I work, by his grandmother. She complained that he suffered from severe diarrhoea. I immediately asked her to bring Faizan’s mother so that we could establish breast-feed for the baby. We are currently in the process of educating mothers about the importance of breast-feeding at our malnutrition stabilization centre, and are trying to help them establish or re-establish breast feeding.

In reply to my request, she answered,
“Who tou nahi ayegi kyunke uska perhaiz hai.”

(She won’t come because she is on abstinence.)

Seeing my perplexed expression, she told me that in her culture when a female becomes pregnant, she was usually prohibited from venturing outdoors. Moreover, if she gives birth to a boy, she is to continue to stay at home and has to abstain from eating certain foods for a period of five months; these foods include eggs and all types of meat. After this five-month abstinence, a head-shaving ceremony is arranged for the baby boy at the mazar (shrine) of their pir sahib (religious elder) where they distribute niaz (food) according to their social status.

Only after this ceremony has been performed, is the mother allowed to go outside her home and eat meat and eggs.

I was shocked to hear all this and more so when she said that all this occurred at the birth of every male child and never at the birth of a female child.

Soon after this incident, I had the chance to meet a woman named Haseena Mai who had four daughters. She told me that during   her fifth pregnancy she made a mannat (pledge) to her pir sahib that hat she would fast during her entire pregnancy, and if she was blessed with a baby boy she would carry it till he turned one, and then would sacrifice a goat at the mazaar of their pir sahib.

Fortunately or unfortunately for her, she did give birth to a boy – a weak, emaciated baby who suffered from recurrent infections only because his mother had ended up weakening both their immune systems by fasting throughout her pregnancy.

I encountered the same case with Eman. His mother brought him to me at six months, weighing a mere 2.3 kilograms, and suffering from severe malnutrition, pneumonia and diarrhoea. His treatment had just begun and he was still critically ill and oxygen-dependent when his mother asked me to let her go home. Shocked and dismayed, I asked her why she needed to leave and she replied that their  pir sahib had came to town and that he would leave within two days for Saudi Arabia. She told me that she had to fulfil her mannat before he left.

I asked her what she had pledged and she replied that she had to sacrifice a goat at the mazaar of the pir’s forefathers and ask him for prayers for the child since the pir sahib claimed that ‘evil spirits’ were the cause of her child’s poor health.

Although I sat her down and tried to counsel her to the best of my ability, she left with the baby. However, three days later she was back at the hospital with the child in a condition much worse than he had been in before. Over the next few days, we struggled day and night to save the weakening child; and after a lot of hard work and prayers, he survived. However, getting the mother to re-establish breast-feeding proved to be our next challenge since both, her mother-in-law and the pir sahib were opposed to it, holding the mother responsible for transferring the ‘evil spirit’ to the baby.

However, we persisted in counselling and explaining to her the importance of her milk to the baby; finally, she caved in and the baby was put back on its mother’s milk. Although the process was slow and difficult, Eman is now on his way to health.

As a bystander, I do not have anything against pir sahibs; after all, a pir is supposed to be a pious person and people look up to him for religious guidance. Having said that, I feel that pir sahibs have a responsibility to guide people correctly in matters pertaining to the Quran and Sunnah. However, unfortunately, sometimes we find people being misguided by these pirs and religion being misconstrued. Moreover, most of their followers are unaware that such restrictions are often based on culture and traditions more than religion.  What makes it worse is that since pir sahibs have a following that goes back generations, their influence on their followers is immense and unquestioned.

The stories narrated above show that often followers of these pirs have no understanding of why they are being made to do a certain thing; except that it is a ‘tradition’ that has been passed on from generation to generation. Also, the veneration that they hold, or are made to hold, for these spiritual leaders keeps them from questioning the rationality of the acts performed.

In the field of medicine, particularly, in the field of paediatric practice, the influence that these pir sahibs have over the masses, poses an enormous challenge to doctors and health care workers

A mother-to-be is more in need of healthy, nutritious food than the average person. Yet, while the rest of the family continues feasting, these narrow-minded restrictions keep her from eating eggs and meat.  This can deprive her of essential biological proteins and other nutrients such as iron and vitamins – especially Vitamin B12, folic acid and Vitamin D, which can weaken her and the baby immensely. Of course, if a health issue dictates a restricted diet, that is another matter altogether; and even that calls for a diet plan incorporating alternatives to replace the missing nutrients.

Although health practitioners try to do their part, the need of the hour is much greater. Such beliefs and traditions are so severely entrenched in our society, especially in the rural areas and smaller cities, that the whole community needs to pitch in to make a difference. Perhaps, we should develop community awareness programs to educate people who are unfortunately still living in the stone ages.

Only a concentrated effort to put an end to the blind following of pir sahibs and traditions, along with the correct interpretation of religion, provision of good health services and increasing awareness of preventative health, can help our society move forward.
WRITTEN BY:
Saadia Khan A paediatric resident at the Children's Hospital and Institute of Child Health, Multan, she has a keen interest in preventative paediatric medicine and community work, and tweets as@drkhanchc (https://twitter.com/drkhanchc).
The views expressed by the writer and the reader comments do not necassarily reflect the views and policies of the Express Tribune.

COMMENTS (9)

Supriya Arcot | 10 years ago | Reply sorry but many parts of both sides of the subcontinent are still living in the dark ages. u re doing good job of educating people . Keep it up .
maha | 10 years ago | Reply We wont be able to get rid of these traditions and believes if our women are not educated.They will not be able to wrap their heads around simple concepts like eating healthy while you are pregnant without the exposure to education. Their minds are limited to their belief system. Its Just sad
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