The woman arrived at the hospital in Peshawar after trying to remove the nail herself with pliers. At first she told the doctors that she had driven the nail into her head herself, but later admitted that it was a faith healer. He guaranteed that she would give birth to such a boy.
A doctor from Lady Reading Hospital said the woman was “completely conscious but in extreme pain” when she arrived at the hospital.
Police have launched an investigation after the X-rays of the injury appeared online.
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Threatened
Hospital staff told local Dawn newspaper that the woman approached the faith healer after hearing about the practice from a neighbor. The woman already had three daughters and her husband had threatened to leave her if she had another girl. “Out of fear, she went to the faith healer,” hospital staff said.
In some South Asian countries, it is often thought that a son provides better long-term financial security to parents than daughters. This leads to exploitative practices by so-called ‘faith healers’.
Faith healers are relatively common in certain parts of Pakistan, especially in the northwestern tribal areas. Their practices are based on Sufi teachings (a mystical movement of Islam).
Peshawar Police Chief Abbas Ahsan tweeted on Tuesday that a special investigation team has been formed to “bring to justice the faith healer who toyed with the life of an innocent woman and drove a nail in the head with the false promise of a male child.”