World
Massive Shiite crowds gather across region to mark Ashura in shadow of war
Shiite Muslims marked one of the most important days on their calendar Friday with large gatherings in Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and other parts of the world to remember the seventh-century killing of Hussein, the grandson of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad.
The annual commemoration, known as Ashura, is marked on the 10th day of the month of Muharram in the lunar-based Islamic calendar. Ashura is the culmination of a 10-day mourning period and marks the day Hussein was killed alongside members of his family and companions as he fought against the army of Caliph Yazid, to whom Hussein had refused to pledge allegiance.
Hussein’s killing cemented the schism between Sunni and Shiite Islam and remains a powerful symbol of resistance against oppression and injustice.
Ashura this year comes after a war between predominantly Shiite Iran and the United States and Israel, who launched strikes on the country on February 28, killing senior officials including supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
The 86-year-old Khamenei was not just Iran’s top political leader but also had a final say on all religious matters and was revered by millions of Shiites worldwide.
A funeral procession for Khamenei is scheduled to take place in early July.
On Friday, large crowds of people gathered in the Iraqi Shiite holy city of Karbala to mark Ashura. Hussein is buried in the city where he was killed in the battle that took place in 680 CE, and his shrine is visited by millions of Shiites from around the world every year.
In Baghdad, thousands marched through the streets, including some who slashed their heads with razors and performed other forms of self-flagellation in a show of grief to mark the occasion.
In Lebanon, where a fragile ceasefire between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group is in place, thousands of black-clad mourners gathered in Beirut’s southern suburbs at a shrine to Hezbollah’s former longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in a series of massive Israeli strikes in 2024.
Women clutched photographs of sons and brothers killed in the war — many of them fighting for Hezbollah — while others held photographs of Nasrallah or Khamenei.
Many of them sobbed. Expressions of grief for the death of the Imam Hussein are traditional during Ashura, but many of the mourners were also grieving more personal losses.
Nagham Jaber said her fiancé was killed in the war.
“This war was truly harsh on all of us, and now we are feeling the meaning of Ashura more than usual,” she said.
In the southern Lebanese city of Nabatiyeh, which is usually a major center to commemorate Ashura, dozens of people gathered near the main square, much of which was destroyed by Israeli airstrikes over the past weeks, with some of them inflicting head injuries on themselves to express their mourning. The practice is widely opposed by many Shiites, including Hezbollah.
Earlier on Friday, state media and Associated Press journalists on the ground reported two Israeli airstrikes on the nearby village of Nabatiyeh al-Fawqa. It was not immediately clear if the strike inflicted any casualties.
“Despite all the hardships, everything happening to the Shiite Muslim community, and the wars we are facing, we came to reaffirm our loyalty, our love and our unwavering passion for Imam Hussein,” said Khader Kamal.
To Shiites, who make up the second-largest branch of Islam after the Sunni majority, the killing of Hussein holds deep religious and historical resonance and plays a key role in shaping identity.
Hezbollah’s leader, Naim Qassem, said in a speech Friday that Ashura is being repeated again by the US and Israel, adding that his group and its supporters were subjected to a “war of elimination.”
“America and Israel also wanted to eliminate Iran by removing the regime and controlling the country,” Qassem said. “The memorandum of understanding is a declaration of defeat for America and Israel,” Qassem said of the deal reached this month between Washington and Tehran.
Lebanon was drawn into the wider regional war on March 2, when Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel for the first time since a November 2024 ceasefire agreement that ended over a year of hostilities initiated by the Iran-backed terror group.
The IDF has since launched massive airstrikes across Lebanon and set up a “security zone” over much of the country’s south to stem Hezbollah’s attacks on northern Israel.
