Chan'ad Bahraini

And here are my last set of photos from Ashura this year (at last). These were taken on the day of Ashura. I wasn't able to go to Manama for the processions in the morning so I took some photos of the events in Diraz later in the afternoon.

I've got a whole bunch more photos from Ashura that I still haven't yet posted. I was hoping to write a bit of commentary about Ashura in Bahrain, but I just haven't got round to it. So before my backlog gets any longer I'll share the photos now.

But I think it is important to point out that there has always been something very political about Ashura. The Tragedy of Karbala is itself a story of the righteous taking a stand against the oppressors, and the commemoration of Ashura is a form of protest against what happened. In an essay titled "Red Shi'ism vs Black Shi'ism", the Iranian sociologist (and progressive Islamist) Dr Ali Shariati writes in unambiguous terms

I found the old photo at the top at the shaheedbh.com forum, along with two more old photos of ashura processions in Bahrain... The photos don't have a date or location... can any of you make a guess as to when or where they might have been taken?

This year has been the most visible and "in-your-face" Muharram in Bahrain that I can remember. It seems that all the villages and all the matams are competing with each other by putting up the most black flags or banners, or displaying the most elaborate artwork.

Were it not for our terrorist co-religionists, I'm sure that by now Hollywood would have picked up on the story of Karbala and made a movie about it. "The Passion of Hussain" it might have been called. In my opinion, a screen rendering of the tragedy of Karbala has the potential to be far more emotional and moving (and bloody) than Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ".

Contrary to my post three days ago, the Hussaini processions didn't actually begin until last night. I tried taking some photos yesterday but they're not very good. My camera's flash is terrible so I don't bother with it, which is why there's always motion blur. And I don't have much zoom, which is quite necessary if I don't want to be all up in everyone's face.

I think I was about 5 or 6 years old when I first heard the story of Karbala. My dad's car needed something fixed so he took me with him to one of the garages on Budaiya Highway near Al-Qadam (there's a whole row of them). While the car was being fixed me and my dad stepped outside, and after a while he pointed to the signboard of a neighbouring garage (pictured above) and asked me if I knew what "Karbala" means.

All set and waiting for the first of the Muharram processions tonight.

The black banners and flags have been put up... and the spiderman t-shirts are being outnumbered by "Ya Hussain" t-shirts in the shop window displays.