Afghanistan's Shiites Revive Traditions

Hazara Shiites marked Imam Hussein's death this year by shouting prayers, waving black and green flags, and driving cars and trucks in often boisterous, disorderly processions. Imam Hussein was a grandson of the Prophet Mohammad and is widely viewed as a founder of the Shiite branch of Islam. His death in 680 is considered a pivotal event in Islam's split into Shiite and Suuni branches.

Given ongoing Shiite-Suuni tension, the commemoration of Imam Hussein's death has often sparked sectarian strife. In Afghanistan in 2003, however, the holiday was peaceful, and largely improvised. Driving into a Shiite district on a quiet Friday afternoon, a driver found a peaceful street suddenly crowded by a jumble of running men hoisting flags and blocking side streets, and cars and trucks packed with cheering celebrants. This procession moved through increasingly narrow, winding side streets, eventually arriving in front of a low, modern mosque.

Inside, celebrants, most of them not yet adults, hurriedly formed mourning circles. By the dozens, they beat their chests. Older boys jumped into the center of the circles, whipping their backs with light chains that showed sharp metal slivers at the tips.

After an hour-long ceremony, mourners returned to their trucks to parade to the next mosque. Thereafter, several flag-bearers jumped into a car with a foreign photographer, making it part of the parade through downtown Kabul. Some onlookers cheered, while others observed with caution and some evident misgivings. When the procession reached a second mosque near the central bazaar, a small argument ensued as an elder told the mourners that the mosque could not accommodate all the celebrants. The procession then moved back into the Shiite neighborhoods, through alleys too narrow for trucks.

Celebrants continued the procession on foot, reaching a small walled compound that turned out to be a construction site as night began to fall. As boys formed circles again, laying out rugs in the dirt, a curious and taciturn group of Sunni Muslims looked on. So did women and girls standing on nearby rooftops, keeping their distance. On this particular day, a sense of harmony blew through Kabul. A generator kicked on, someone started a tape player, and the ritual started anew. The rituals continued into the late hours of the night.