A pregnant woman showed up at a Pakistani hospital with a nail driven into her head by a healer who had guaranteed her she would give birth to a boy, medical sources said on Wednesday.
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The woman arrived at a hospital in Peshawar, in northwestern Pakistan, after trying to remove the nail herself, doctor Haider Khan, who treated her, told AFP.
“
She was fully conscious, but in a lot of pain
,” he explained.
An X-ray showed that the nail had been driven five centimeters into the skull, without reaching the brain.
The woman said she was the mother of three daughters and was expecting another.
Traditional healers, whose practices are often rooted in Sufi mysticism, are common in Pakistan, an overwhelmingly Muslim country, although various Islamic schools of thought disapprove of such rites.
In South Asia, having a boy is often seen as a good omen, as he is believed to be better able to secure his parents' financial future than a girl.
Pakistani police are now looking to question the woman.
“
We will get our hands on the sorcerer soon
,” Peshawar police chief Abbas Ahsan told AFP.
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