Mohamed holds up a white palette with an inscription that reads "Husein" in Arabic characters. Behind him, making his way through a couple of processions carrying mortuary caskets covered with black flags, about twenty people follow him on his way to the promenade that leads to the mausoleum of Imam Ali, son-in-law and cousin of the Prophet Muhammad with whom he meets start of Shiism, the majority branch of Islam in Iraq and Iran, where Mohamed comes from. He is 64 years old, from Ardabil –in the north, close to Azerbaijan–, and he has been leading pilgrimage trips to Iraq for thirty years.
After getting past the security checkpoint of Iraqi soldiers, many with their bushy jet-black mustaches, Mohamed stops. Pointing to the dome and golden minarets, he quickly tells the story of this place which, two decades after the US invasion and the violence that broke out in the country in the years since, has regained the splendor it had lost since the time of the former dictator Saddam Hussein.
During the time he ruled Iraq, Hussein limited and controlled Shiite access to their holy sites. It is currently one of the most visited pilgrimage sites in the Islamic world. And the world in general. “During Saddam it was extremely difficult to visit Iraq. We received few permits and we were always accompanied by security men ”, explains this man after announcing to his group that they will meet again at the same point two hours later.
“During the time of the Americans, we could come, but it was dangerous. The car bombs killed a lot of people… And then the Islamic State came,” he continues. Like the group led by Mohamed, thousands of Iranians perform the same ritual this afternoon. The beginning of Ramadan coincided with the Persian New Year holidays.
And as they do every year, thousands and thousands of Iranians take advantage of this break to visit not only Najaf but also the other holy places of Shiism in Iraq, especially the beloved Karbala, where the remains of Imam Hussein, the prophet's grandson and a venerated figure in the shia. “Imam Hussein is considered by Shiites to have been the leader of the revolution against oppression and injustice. He is the greatest of the martyrs, and therefore the importance of him, ”explains Sayed Rashid Zmiezm, a historian from Karbala.
When Mohamed began leading groups of pilgrims, the war against Iran that Saddam Hussein started in 1980 after the victory of the Islamic revolution and the consequent rise of Ayatollah Khomeini had just ended. Only a few groups received permission to visit the country. He remembers that, when they crossed the land border, a caravan of official cars was always waiting for them that never left them during their journey. Currently, dozens of flights leave Tehran every day for Najaf.
The current flow is so great that the Imam Khomeini airport has a special terminal for pilgrims called Salam. In the Najaf or Karbala bazaar, the boys who invite people to buy perfumes, sweets or any type of souvenir alluding to Shi'ism figures advertise their products in Arabic and Persian. “Our economy depends largely on the Iranians,” confirms Hussein, a 60-year-old merchant who opened his store more than thirty years ago.
He does not hesitate to affirm that the massive arrival of pilgrims has changed the city. Like the arrival in the government of Iraq of Shiite leaders. Dozens of hotels have opened, a vast industry has been built around visitors, and holy places have been expanded and renovated. The splendor is especially evident in Arbain, the annual ceremony in which the forty days of the death of Imam Hussein are remembered. On those dates, millions of people from different parts of the world, mostly from Iran, arrive in Iraq.
This large Iranian presence, although it is welcome from the economic side, is not entirely welcome in Najaf or Karbala, where some say that the Iranians seek to seize these two cities, but also the rest of the country. It is not a lie to anyone that if there is any actor that ended up benefiting from the invasion, it is Iran, ironically Washington's greatest enemy in the region. "Of course there are many in Iraq who follow the alignments of Iran, but in cities like Najaf or Karbala many are suspicious of that influence," says Ali, a trader who asks not to give more details about his life.
For many it is especially important to seek to protect the independence of the Najaf hawsa, or the city's Shiite school. "Our ayatollah is Ali Sistani – the highest religious authority in Iraq – and we do not believe in the uilayat al faqih," Ali continues, referring to the school imposed by the late Ayatollah Khomeini in which the religious leader is in charge of controlling the State while the Mahdi, the twelfth imam, reappears.
Fatima, originally from Baghdad, is old enough to remember what life was like before Saddam Hussein. “When I was a child, pilgrims came in large numbers. Many times we slept in the street and around the mausoleum, but then Saddam came and everything changed”, says this woman covered in the chador that women who visit these sacred places require. She is sitting on the floor together with her daughter and two of her grandchildren, they have just finished their iftar dinner, with which they break their fast.
For her, as for many, it is a tradition to come here to perform this ceremony during Ramadan. The courtyards inside the temple, where dozens of rugs are spread out for the faithful to pray on, are full of groups. “During Saddam we had to come here almost on the sly. There were checkpoints on the outskirts of the city. We would pray quickly and leave ”, she recounts.
But the departure of the former dictator and the arrival of the Americans opened a Pandora's box of violence, which has plagued the country for years, including Najaf and Karbala. “Groups like Al Qaeda kidnapped and attacked groups of pilgrims to prevent visitors from arriving, but the effect was the opposite. Many people wanted to come, many wanted to be martyrs and die alongside Imam Hussein," says Sayed Rashid Zmiezm, a historian from Karbala.
Security has returned to the streets today. “It is very important that after so many things we can visit the mausoleum at any time, it is a very special place”, Fátima concludes before entering the temple to pray.
