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Masks and Tears: Shiites Mark Ashura at Iraq Shrines Despite Virus

AFP

   Tens of thousands of Shiite Muslim pilgrims, some in masks and gloves,
   flooded Iraq's Karbala on Sunday to mark Ashoura, in one of the largest
   religious gatherings of the coronavirus era.

   Ashoura, on the 10th day of the mourning month of Muharram,
   commemorates the killing of the Prophet Mohammed's grandson Hussein at
   the Battle of Karbala in 680 AD -- the defining moment of Islam's
   confessional schism.

   Typically, millions of Shiites from around the world flock to the holy
   city's golden-domed shrine where Hussein's remains are buried, to pray
   and cry, shoulder-to-shoulder.

   But with coronavirus numbers spiking across the globe, this year's
   commemoration has been subdued.

   "Honestly, this year is nothing like the millions-strong commemorations
   of other years," said Fadel Hakim, who was out early in the streets
   around the shrine, a blue medical mask cupping his chin.

   "It stands out because there are so few people."

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