Religious rehab in Pakistan

A few days ago, police in Pakistan rescued 54 students from the basement of a madrasa in the city of Karachi. It was revealed that many of these students had been chained up and were often beaten and barely fed. What was perhaps the most shocking aspect of this story was the fact that many of those chained up had been sent there because of their drug addictions.

It turned out that many students had been sent by their parents. A man who identified himself as Abdullah said he had brought his 35 year old son there specifically for drug rehabilitation. He commented that: "The chains are not a problem. They are needed because without them heroin addicts run away." (Guardian, 13/12/11) Another relative of an addict, Hijrat Khan, commented that “My brother was addicted to sniffing Seamed Bond [glue]. We failed to rid him of the addiction, so we contacted the madrasa’s administration and got my brother admitted…”We also permitted the administration to use any method[s] to make my brother stop using drugs,” (Pakistan Today, 14/12/11)

For a country which is estimated to have approximately 628,000 opiate users (of which 77% are chronic heroin abusers) it may seen shocking to learn that this is how drug addicts are ‘cured.’ (UNODC, Illicit Drug Trends Report: Pakistan, p.6) If we look though at the countries strong religious roots though as well as the states lack of adequate harm reduction facilities, we may be able to understand the reasoning behind these somewhat inhumane forms of treatment.

Madrasas emerged in the 11th century as colleges of learning and became key institutions within society. The schools taught not only the religious establishment but also secular society. For many, they were the only form of education available and this is true even in modern times. Recently, madrasas have become even more prevalent in Pakistani society. Many are too poor to send their children to Pakistan’s state schools and in fact prefer the religious teaching that is given to students at madrasas. The number of madrasas is subject to debate as many are not officially recognised by the state. The religious affairs ministry put the number of officially registered madrasas at 18,000 but some estimates believe there may be as many as 30,000 (Guardian, 11/10/11) These institutions are in many ways then, far more important and indeed far more relevant than those provided by the state.

If we look at Pakistan’s drug problem now, we will again see that the state is failing to keep up with the needs of the drug using population. As already stated, Pakistan has approximately 628,000 addicts, 77% of which are heroin users. Only 22.7% of this population though are covered by the country’s needle exchange programmes. It should be noted as well that most of these are in urban areas. Many users therefore have little access to any rehabilitation facilities. The country also has no opioid substitution programmes (i.e. methadone).

Pakistan’s official treatments may also be equally harsh with regards to rehabilitation. In 2009 the BBC interviewed a Pakistani heroin addict and asked him to describe the rehab process. The man commented that hospitals often throw you in a room to withdraw cold turkey and ‘medicine’ is only given to the user if they have money. (BBC Radio 4, Crossing Continents, Pakistan: Rehab Madrasa, 3/12/09) No wonder many may be turning to the madrasas for help.

Currently, estimates for the number of addicts being treated by madrasas are unknown. It may be fairly high though, given the number of users, the popularity of madrasas and the lack of state facilities.

It would be impossible to comment about the conditions within all of these centres and many may be nowhere near as cruel as the one mentioned at the start of this report. Nevertheless the story of Urfan Azad, a British Muslim who experienced firsthand the rehab offered by these madrasas, may be illuminating.

Azad grew up in Reading, Berkshire and by his early 20s had become sucked into the world of drug dealing. Azad, who was also a heroin addict himself, said he reached rock bottom in late 2000 after he became involved in ‘selling women’ and was stabbed on Christmas Eve. Rather than go to the local drug services, Azad decided to go with his father to Pakistan in order to seek treatment. (BBC Radio 4, Crossing Continents, Pakistan: Rehab Madrasa, 3/12/09)

Because he was a heroin addict he was sent to an isolated madrasa which was very high up in the mountains and two hours away from the local village. He says he was made to ascend to this ‘rehab centre’ whilst he was withdrawing. Azad says that most of the treatment involved the continuous practicing of religion, he commented that: ‘sooner or later God helps you.’ He also told the reporters about the punishments he received if he failed to co-operate. Azad stated that when he failed to get up early in the morning, he was made to run up the mountain, in the rain, semi-naked. He was made to stay up there from 5am-1.30pm. Not all of the treatment may have been this severe as he said that he spent a lot of time meditating under a tree. (Ibid)

The centre though was not merely treating addicts. Azad also spoke about how he was given military training. He says that: "we were taught to crawl on the ground with guns. They made me strip an AK-47 and put it back together again." Many of the former addicts would later go on to fight for the Taliban in Afghanistan. (Ibid)
Azad has been clean for over 10 years now and is very grateful for the treatment that he received in Pakistan, commenting that: ‘faith based approaches work, not all the time, [but] for me it worked.’ (Ibid) Although we should not completely write of the potential benefits of this form of religious treatment, if Pakistan really wishes to tackle its growing drug problem, it may wish to greatly enhance its official harm reduction facilities. After all, turning drug addicts into insurgents is definitely an outcome nobody wishes for.