Pakistani Woman Takes Advice Of 'Faith Healer', Drives Nail Into Her Head To Guarantee Baby Boy

The woman thought that if she hammered the nail to her head, she could deliver a son instead of the girl she was pregnant with, Deustche Welle (DW) reported.

Photo Insert: The woman said that another woman in her locality did the same (hammered a nail) and gave birth to a boy even though the ultrasound had shown her unborn child to be a girl.

A so-called faith healer in the Pakistani city of Peshawar is being sought Wednesday by authorities, after advising a pregnant woman to hammer a nail on her forehead so that she could deliver a baby boy, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) also reported.

Neurologist Haider Suleman, who treated the victim at Lady Reading Hospital, said although the nail had penetrated the woman's skull, it had not reached her brain.

"She said that a woman in her locality did the same [hammered a nail] and gave birth to a boy even though the ultrasound had shown her unborn child to be a girl," Suleman told Pakistani news outlet Dawn.

Faith healers are a common avenue in Pakistan for people seeking spiritual solutions to their problems. Most of these healers are Islamic clerics and other religious people. The incident came to the attention of authorities after the victim's x-ray went viral. Police examined the content to work through the case.

"The team will also investigate why [the] incident was not reported to [the] police by the treating doctor," local police chief Abbas Ahsan said, Agence France-Presse (AFP) also reported.

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