RIYADH, 15 May 2007 — Over 20 barbershops, all licensed and next door to one another in the capital’s Al-Shumaisi district, would be a familiar scene in many of the Kingdom’s streets — that is, if customers were going in and out for a haircut or a shave. An investigation by Arab News, however, has revealed that these shops are fronts for what is known in Arabic as “Hijama.”
Hijama is the Arabic word for cupping or “sucking blood.” It is carried out by using a small vacuum over a small incision in the skin and was widely practiced in the past by Arabs and Muslims. It is mentioned in several Hadiths, which praise it as a good remedy.
Hijama is normally performed on the head, but can be performed anywhere on the body, often at the site of an ache or pain. The purpose is to ease or alleviate pain. The location is first shaved, if necessary, to ensure a tight seal with the cup.
The mouth of the cup (metal, glass and plastic cups are generally used) is placed on the skin at the site chosen for cupping. Then a tight seal is created, generally by burning a small piece of paper or cotton inside the vessel so that the mouth of the cup clings to the skin.
The cup is left to cling to the skin for a few minutes, then it is lifted off and a couple of small incisions are made in the skin. The cup is then put back as it was before and remains until it is filled with blood.
Customers who look for cupping in the capital — which is banned by the Health Ministry — come to these shops and negotiate with the African men sitting outside for a good price. The men even have special business cards where they print the nature of their business — (“Abdul Raoof: Barber, Hijama and Circumcision Specialist” Mobile No: 05.........).
Without proper hygienic equipment and inappropriate training the men are possibly spreading contagious blood diseases. They sit in front of the barbershops and wait until someone comes along and asks about cupping.
“We’ve been here for decades,” one of the men said. “Come inside and see our catalogue. Don’t worry; all our equipment is new and clean. We suck out the bad blood anywhere in your body and you feel better afterward,” he explained.
He admitted, however, that cupping is not done in the shops for fear of the police. “We cut their hair a little here and the Hijama is done in our houses in the back,” he said.
He said that in the houses in the alleys behind the shops, there were women who could do the cupping for a female customer if she were interested.
Another African man sitting near the shop said he knew that the authorities had banned the practice but the demand remained. “We charge SR25 for each cup,” he replied when asked about prices. “You do not need to take a day’s rest. After the bad blood is drawn out, you can carry on normally as before,” he went on.
The man said that he was experienced and learned the technique from his father. He said he could easily determine the symptoms of bad blood in a person’s body, giving examples of laziness and fatigue.
The man even recommended that a cupping therapy be done every couple of months to ensure better health. According to him, cupping can cure fatigue, laziness, ankle pains, back pains and other problems.
Last year, Riyadh Municipality shut down 15 barbershops in the capital for practicing Hijama using unhygienic equipment. “The municipality does not provide licenses to Hijama shops unless they meet all hygienic conditions, including using new cups and razors for each patient,” a municipality official was reported as saying in a newspaper.
On Feb. 1, the Health Ministry vowed to crack down on Hijama shops in the Kingdom and threatened to close all institutions that practice it. Minister of Health Hamad Al-Manie announced to the press that any medical institution listing Hijama as one of its practices would be shut down completely and banned from future operations.
He denied that his ministry had allowed the practice in the Kingdom and even issued licenses to medical institutions. He also noted that his ministry had banned doctors from working in the Kingdom when he learned that they were practicing the therapy. “I have refused to accept the research paper from the Council of Medical Services on Hijama which referred to it as a religious therapy,” he said. “I told them that if they had information based on scientific evidence, then they are welcome. But if you are merely relying on religious aspects, no. During the time of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) there was no equipment to draw out blood.”
The minister stressed to the professionals attending an international symposium on blood transfusion to do more research on Hijama and prove its benefits scientifically so that people would not continue to practice it based solely on religious reasons.
Last month, a spokesperson for the Health Ministry made a public announcement that the Health Services Council had decided not to allow the practice of Hijama in Saudi Arabia because evidence given to prove its effectiveness was non-scientific. It added that the council would rely only on modern scientific evidence.
