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Cairo, EGYPT: TO GO WITH STORY BY JOELLE BASSOUL Zar musicians and healers perform their ritual in Cairo late 21 June 2006. The Zar trans religious ceremony, which uses drumming and dancing to cure an illness thought to be caused by a demon, is most prominent in southern Egypt and is practiced further south into the Sudan, though in fact it may be performed anywhere in Egypt. The ritual, a type of a healing cult, is prohibited by Islam as a pagan practice but it continues to be part of Egypt's popular cult

Can this mystical musical tradition make comeback in Egypt?

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Cairo, EGYPT: TO GO WITH STORY BY JOELLE BASSOUL Zar musicians and healers perform their ritual in Cairo late 21 June 2006. The Zar trans religious ceremony, which uses drumming and dancing to cure an illness thought to be caused by a demon, is most prominent in southern Egypt and is practiced further south into the Sudan, though in fact it may be performed anywhere in Egypt. The ritual, a type of a healing cult, is prohibited by Islam as a pagan practice but it continues to be part of Egypt's popular cult

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