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InayatShah — Rats of Dolay Shah
Published: 2015-07-13 08:26:11 +0000 UTC; Views: 1687; Favourites: 33; Downloads: 8
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Description
Location: Islamabad PakistanDolay Shah ka Chooha (The Rats of Dolay Shah)
It is said that Shah Dola of Gujrat, A saint of Suhrawardi School of thought during the time of King Aurangzeb ,had the power to punish disobedient parents, by having their children born with small heads. These children served in his shrine and were called “Dolay Shah kay Chohey” or “Mice of Dolay Shah” or “Rats of Dolay Shah”. (In Urdu the word for Rat and Mouse is the same)
Hundred of thousands of people, specially infertile women, come to saint to get his blessing for the fulfilment of their wishes. In return for fullfillment of the blessing, They have to donate the first born child to work as a servent in Shrine. It is said in the shrine they put an “iron cap” on the head of that baby to stop the growth of his head, and later call it “Rat of Dolay Shah”.
According to old tradition, incapable women who worship at shrine of Saint Dolay Shah, will become fertile. But unless they donate their first born to shrine as a servent, all their babies will born disabled.
This shrine is not under the control of Govt of Pakistan. There may be almost 10,000 of these “Rats of Dolay Shah”, mostly in Punjab and specially in the city of Gujrat.
An horrific example of human rights violation in the name of religion on silly people who leave their kids in the premises tomb to fulfil their own wishes.
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Comments: 31
Wow, the things I get to learn here are at once amazing and horrific! Maybe with a proper international campaign this practice can be brought to an end.
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I must sadly admit .. that it is not one of our countries greatest priorities at the moment. We are facing much more severe and far reaching acts of violation of basic human rights ...
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I have been coming back to this image every day since you posted it and I still have no idea what to say about it. The idea that a practice like this would go on openly in full view of everyone in 2015 horrifies me. The fact that the Government know it goes on and do nothing shows what kind of people they really are. A Government of any country is supposed to act for the good of all its citizens and give priority to fixing abuses such as this. This goes way beyond poverty.
I will remember his face for a long time.
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My apologies for the delayed reply, I had been travelling.
I can not in anyway justify or condone this practice in anyway at all, but what I feel is just as reprehensible as the governments failure to act or even take notice of this deed, are the masses of ignorant people who flock to the shrine from all parts of the country and continue this barbaric practice.
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I hope that one day we will all be able to move forward into a more enlightened age where this kind of thing is in the distant past. Even Japan was eventually persuaded to drop foot binding. Robbing this man of his intellect is on another level.
Keep showing us your country, good and bad. It's the only way.
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Ohhhhh 
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Oh, man
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In retrospect, I think powerless would be a better adjective
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Yes, I, too, feel powerless..but that doesn't stop me from trying to help a bit here & there.. 
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Simply shocking. I feel sickened such things go on it the world.
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Somewhat akin to the binding of the feet. In the name of "beauty". I agree with you completely, Inayat. What a tragedy. And how people can do this to one another. I just don't understand.
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One can only blame ignorance , illiteracy and superstition for this particular unpleasant act
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Inhumane and extremely cruel .. Something one would expect in the dark ages
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thanks for sharing the image and the back story.
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"An horrific example of human rights violation in the name of religion on silly people who leave their kids in the premises tomb to fulfil their own wishes". So true!
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The worst thing is that they invariably become retarded due to this metal cap , the skull doesn't grow and the brains don't develop.
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oops! isn'it forbidden by law? Is this in the Hindu or Muslim religion ?
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well .. yes if one wished to do something it could be taken to the courts .. but its a complicated messed up situation ..
Sadly it is one of the worst examples of my religion ... Islam .. where as I wouldn't even say the act is Islamic but perpetrated by illiterate, ignorant and superstitious muslims
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Imams should break these practices. I guess it is not written in any holy book, is it?. Rather it seems a sort of tribal ritual for me.
There are still a lot of nonsense rituals in the ancestral customs of some countries
and it is difficult to make things change.
I worked some time in West Africa and I have been facing the circumcision of girls... Battle
is not yet won !!!
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Imams .. most of them (at least here) are just as illiterate themselves and perpetuate the beliefs. The term Imam can be misleading, for instance in Shi'ite sects an Imam is a spiritual and religous leader, while in Sunni sects the Imam is basically the caretaker of the mosque and leads the congrgational prayers. (Any Muslim can lead congregational prayers) and some how these "illiterate" Imams because of the fact that they are caretakers of the Mosque are mistakenly taken to be Islamic Theological experts.
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oops! So that leaves little hope ... and it also explains many other things ...!
Sha, thank you for having taken the time to explain to me. I'm leaving in a few days for another month in India. (another country with ancestral customs often shocking ... but I can't help , I can not do without to return there .... kind of addiction ...)
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Mental castration.
A powerful, disturbing photograph; with educational and disturbing text to match.
Theologists often speak of heaven and hell in the abstract, or in the future tense, but heaven and hell exist in this world, and for the large part, we are the creators of both.
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