Spiritual Healing as Women Empowerment

Abstract

This research focuses on exploring the practice of healing in Nomal village, Gilgit and impact this healing have on women living in the society under study. The study suggests that women healers are empowering themselves and women around them by involving themselves in healing craft. It demonstrates how women exercise multi-level empowerment by carrying out and participating in healing art. These practices and narratives of women, interviewed during current study shows that female healers have provided a space for women to battle restrictions imposed on them by patriarchal society, based on their gender. These female healers are challenging male authority, by having a greater say in decision making and transcending gender boundaries, in a society where interacting with opposite gender is considered a disgrace. They challenged the notion of hOllse hold as a restriction, connecting with outside world within their own compounds. Their position as a healer has also changed their status within their family and society. Data was collected from a sample of 35 women. 05 among them were healers, 10 women who visited healers to sought treatment, 10 women who were relatives of healers, and 10 women who don't seek help of healer or visit them for different purposes. With this research, I have tried to make women's experiences visible and highlight the alternative ways through which women reclaim their voices in a male-dominated society.