Despite virus, Shia pilgrims gather for mourning month

Shia pilgrims poured into the Iraqi shrine city of Karbala on Friday for the rites of the holy month of Muharram, ignoring calls to stay home as Covid-19 spreads.

The pilgrimage is expected to be one of the largest religious gatherings in the Muslim world since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, which already forced Saudi Arabia to hold the smallest Hajj in modern history.

The first month of the Islamic year, Muharram is the month of mourning for the seventh-century martyrdom of Hazrat Imam Hussain, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

Usually, millions of Shia Muslims from around the world flock to Iraq to commemorate the birth of their faith, praying, eating and reflecting together.

But this year, authorities in Iraq, Iran and beyond have repeatedly urged their citizens to forgo real-life pilgrimages due to the high risk of contracting the coronavirus.

Shia-majority Iran is the hardest-hit Middle Eastern country with more than 20,000 coronavirus deaths. Iraq is second with more than 6,200.

Still, by Thursday night, thousands of pilgrims were already en route to the gates of the golden mausoleums in the holy city of Karbala, some masked and gloved but others proceeding shoulder-to-shoulder as they always had.

"Dramatically different" 

Enormous tents have been erected as usual to host pilgrims in Baghdad and Basra as well as Karbala, but with a new twist, an attempt at social distancing.

On the ground, stickers of footprints or large crosses suggest how far worshippers should stay from one another.

"It's dramatically different from other years," said Salim Mahdi, a tent manager in Basra near the Iraq-Iran border.

"People are disinfecting themselves as soon as they enter the tent, then positioning themselves far away from one another and disinfecting themselves again."

In neighbouring Iran, reformist newspaper Arman called it "the most astonishing Muharram of the century."

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the health ministry banned the usual marches, banquets, and any ceremonies indoors.