Ashura, a Sign of the Times

Produced by Nabeel Kamal

BAGHDAD, IRAQ– The Day of Ashura, which commemorates the slaying of Hussein ibn Ali, is one of the holiest days in Shiite Islam. Each year, millions of Shi’a pilgrims gather at shrines in Iraq to mourn the loss of Imam Husayn, a hero of Islam and a grandson of the Prophet Mohammed.

Although in recent years the holiday has been heavily disrupted by violence, this year many Iraqis have noted a dramatic decrease in violence. With the exception of a suicide attack on Iranian pilgrims in Kadhamiya, Shi’a in Iraq were able to celebrate 2009’s Ashura Festival in relative peace.

Iraqi security forces were on high alert after the pilgrims were killed in a Shi’a neighborhood across the Tigris from Adhamiya. Over 20,000 security personnel were deployed to protect the pilgrims and worshippers. The calm of this year’s celebration largely escaped the notice of the media, as most attention has been focused on the events in the Gaza strip. For more, check out Small World News’ newest project, Alive in Gaza.

In this week’s episode of Alive in Baghdad we take you back to the Day of Ashura in 2008. Hear direct from the Iraqis themselves what it means to celebrate this holy day under all the stresses of the ongoing conflict in Iraq.

archival reference: https://web.archive.org/web/20100802115537/http://aliveinbaghdad.org/2009/01/12/ashura-a-sign-of-the-times/

Editor's Note: The concept for Alive-in/ began in 2005 with the launch of Alive in Baghdad. Many of the stories produced by our team of Iraqi reporters were taken offline with the closure of blip.tv.

In remembrance of the 20th anniversary of the United States war against Iraq, we are republishing as much of Alive in Baghdad's original content as possible here on Alive-in/. Each story has been given its original date so that these posts don't overwhelm our current stories, and tagged as relevant.