Daily Times

The media today are reporting a horrible incident from Sheikhupura where a middle aged woman dubbed by the media as “fake pir” allegedly beat her own 22-year-old son to death while performing a ritual.

Tanvir Fatima claims she had a vision where a man told her to perform this ritual and that her son would be resurrected. Fatima reportedly tied her son up with the help of her younger son and beat him to death.

Reportedly, the accused has also confessed to killing her husband 6 years ago also as a part of another ritual. The media is reporting the unfortunate incident as an “extreme case of superstition” while giving no weight to her state of mind. The police as per the media reports are also investigating the issue with the same angle i.e. superstition and fake pir.

Take how one national channel, Dunya News, reported it for example: “Should we call it illiteracy, lack of proper education or superstition?” Asks the anchorperson while reporting the story as “breaking news”. She then has the reporter Rana Usman on beeper to tell more. She asks Usman if she has any psychological problems because she doesn’t “appear in senses”. The reporter immediately ruled out mental health issue while speaking as though he was presenting his expert testimony and was quick to make it about the “social ills”, “superstition” and “extreme indecency”.

Tanvir Fatima in the video footage aired by the media clearly appears mentally unstable. She is seen talking to herself and performing some sort of magic in the air.

It’s astonishing how mental health is not even a factor worth reporting by the media. It could be that it doesn’t sell as well as “a fake pir killing her own son” does. But it is crucial in cases like this that mental health issues are duly considered and investigated before ruling out anything. The media have to stop making assumptions too.

It’s time we started taking mental health issues seriously. While the psychology, psychological issues and treatments are advancing in rest of the world, most Pakistanis still don’t take mental health issues seriously. It makes it worse when the media professionals lack capacity in understanding and reporting these issues.

And no, mental health issues don’t just comprise epilepsy, paranoid schizophrenia and hallucinations, they also includes the issues one faces on day to day basis such as anxiety disorders and depression among others.

Most, if not all, mental health issues are treatable. Some require psychological counseling, others are treated by psychiatrists. The first step, however, is removing the stigma and openly talking about this. Speaking about these issues is very hard because one who gets professional help runs the risk of being labeled “mental”, “freak”, “psychopath” among others if the word got out. This makes it almost impossible for people suffering from these issues from seeking professional help.

The stigma attached to mental health issues in a religiously conservative country is extreme, with many believing them to be a direct result of “curse from God”. Statements like “one is not able to sleep at night because they angered God” are often uttered. According to a Dawn report from last year, Dr Ayesha Mian, chairperson of the department of psychiatry at Aga Khan University, said some 50 million Pakistanis suffer from mental disorders. She also emphasised how important the role of the media is in curbing biases. Another report by PBS Newshour from a year before even claimed 40% of Pakistanis suffer from some sort of mental illness.

Other than media’s capacity, other issues include lack of government regulation, awareness and qualified psychiatrists. As per Dr Mian, there are only 400 “trained psychiatrists” in the country.

We do not have a habit of taking these issues seriously but it has proven that if left untreated, these disorders can prove to be silent killers, making one take their own lives or those of the others as we have seen in the case of Tanvir Fatima.

The media have the power to become the catalyst of change, they can help take the first step towards change. Maybe start by reporting sensibly? Learn how to be sensitive while reporting these issues. These could be the starting points and then we can take things forward from there.

The writer is the Digital Editor, Daily Times and can be reached at me@farhanjanjua.com. He tweets @FarhanJanjua