Shiite Muslims around the world on Thursday marked Ashoura, a holy day symbolizing sacrifice and martyrdom that holds special significance for many this year after months of war in Iran and Lebanon.
Ashoura commemorates the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, at the Battle of Karbala in 680 A.D. Imam Hussein was killed with his family and companions after refusing to pledge allegiance to the Umayyad caliphate.
The event cemented the schism between Sunni and Shiite Islam and remains a powerful symbol of resistance against oppression and injustice.
This year, Ashoura comes after months of war in Iran and Lebanon, homes to two of the world’s largest Shiite populations. Iran and the U.S. this week launched talks aimed at finalizing a fragile ceasefire agreement.
On the first day of the war on Feb. 28, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in an Israeli airstrike. The 86-year-old Khamenei was not just Iran’s top political leader. He also had a final say on all religious matters and was revered by millions of Shiites worldwide. Ashoura comes just days before his funeral procession.
The war also spilled over into Lebanon, where Iran’s key ally, the Hezbollah militant group, has been battling Israeli troops for months.
Hezbollah entered the fighting days into the war by firing rockets into northern Israel in solidarity with Tehran. That sparked widespread Israeli aerial bombardment and ground invasion that decimated large swaths of predominantly Shiite areas in southern Lebanon and Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Ashoura comes as many of the more than one million displaced Lebanese people are trying to return to their villages in southern Lebanon. Cities and towns had held sermons and events in the buildup to the holy day surrounded by buildings reduced to rubble and ruins.
Ashoura is the holiest day on the Shiite calendar, marked by traditional mourning rituals that include chest-beating, elegies, and lamentations. It is held on the 10th day of the month of Muharram.
Families in the Lebanese coastal city of Tyre who lost relatives fighting with Hezbollah or working as paramedics wept during a sermon on the third day of Muharram. A cleric, who sat between portraits of current Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei and Hezbollah Secretary-General Naim Kassem, compared the struggles the modern-day leaders faced in the war to that of Hussein and his companions in Karbala.
Banners in red and black bearing Hussein’s name were hung on every street.
In Beirut’s southern suburbs, many flocked to the grave of former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli strike in September 2024.
Elsewhere, Pakistan deployed thousands of police and paramilitary personnel across the country following intelligence reports warning of possible militant attacks on Shiite Muslims, a minority in the predominantly Sunni country.
Although most Sunnis and Shiites live peacefully alongside one another, militant groups have repeatedly targeted Shiite communities, mosques, and religious gatherings in sectarian attacks that have claimed hundreds of lives.
As members of Pakistan’s Shiite minority prepare to take part in mourning processions, mobile phone services in some areas are expected to be suspended temporarily to help prevent attacks.
“Imam Hussein is a symbol of the highest struggle and sacrifice,” said Saadia Shah, 33, as she entered a congregation hall in the eastern city of Lahore with her two children. “His name gives us the courage to stand up to tyranny, to say what is right and oppose what is wrong.”
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Associated Press journalist Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed to this report.