The pilgrims featured in the Karbala - City of Martyrs special,
on Channel 4 on April 12, 2004.
Find out more about them below.
Hussein Mehdi and his wife Hoda live in Leeds. Hussein
works as a manager in the family food processing business. Originally from Iraq, both have lost
relatives. They're keen to find out the fate
of relatives imprisoned by the Ba'athist regime. Hoda's family also
lost a family home which was requisitioned and used as
an interrogation centre. Neither Hussein nor Hoda has been to Iraq
since they were children.
Nadeem Abbas and his father Kazim worship at the Shi'a
mosque in Tooting, South London. Each year they parade a white horse
known as the Zulzinar, which symbolises the horse ridden by Imam Husayn
the day he was killed at Karbala. The horse then took the news of
his death to Husayn's family. It was Kazim who revived this Pakistani
tradition at the Tooting mosque. This year Nadeem and Kazim are trying
to arrange horse in Karbala. They will dress the horse in white blood
stained sheets and parade it through the streets of Karbala to evoke
the pain and loss of Husayn's family on the day of Ashura. Kazim visited
Karbala under the restrictions of the Saddam era but it is Nadeem's
first journey to the holy city.
Zainab Sumar, is a devout 19 year old Pharmacy student
in Birmingham. She and her sister Fatima believe Ashura in Karbala
this year will be like making history. She will tell us what the experience
means to her as she makes her first visit to pray at the
Shrine of Husayn. The cameras will follow her as she and her sister
soak up the atmosphere of Karbala, the street actors, the crowds,
and the Ashura parade.
Mehdi Amersy has been to Karbala before and will
compare his last visit under the Saddam regime to the current freedom
which will allow him to perform matam with chains (zinjeer) on Ashura.
The scars on his back from his use of the chains testify to his devotion
to Husayn. He has travelled with a group of 110 men from Karachi,
Pakistan so that they can do zinjeer together, openly and publicly
in the streets of Karbala.
Abd al-Hakeem is a white American convert who is
training to become a Shi'a cleric. We trace his spiritual journey
and see him preaching at a mosque in Dearborn, Michigan, to the mainly
Arab-American audience. He discusses the unpredictable security situation
in Iraq with his anxious parents at home in Rhode Island - will it
be safe for an American to be in Karbala?
In Iraq
Abu Zainab is a wealthy businessman who runs a clothing wholesale trade business in Baghdad.
He and a group of friends have bought a house in Karbala where they will provide free food for the pilgrims.
On the 9th day of Muharram they stay awake for the night, in memory of Bibi Zainab, the sister of Husayn, as
she stayed awake waiting for her brother.
Sheikh Sallah is an English speaking cleric in Baghdad who was arrested and tortured by agents
of Saddam. He was jailed three times during the Saddam period. He prays that Muharrum this year will be a time
of peace and a new beginning for Shi'a in their life with Imam Husayn.
Go back to the Karbala - City of Martyrs page or get
a sneak peek at Karbala - City of Martyrs on video. (Dur: 2:34)
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