Lebanon: Nabatieh, Lebanon

Nabatieh, Lebanon: al- Ashura

Now, I hesitate to even post this story, for fear of the impression that the above may give, either of the Middle East as a whole, or of Islam more specifically. Disclaimer: I am only an observer on this blog, and I am not here to pass judgment either condoning or condemning what you see above. I would appreciate any posted comments to reflect the same mentality.

Now that that is out of the way, let me tell you what this is all about. 10 days after the Islamic New Year (which this year was December 16th), is the celebration of al-Ashura, which is a holiday celebrated by Shi'a Muslims. The history behind the Day of al-Ashura (which literally means, "The Tenth") can be found at the link above.

Because the celebration commemorates the martyrdom of Hussein, the ritual centers around self-flagellation practices throughout Shi'a communities worldwide. Most of the time, this ritual manifests itself through lightly (and more symbolically) hitting oneself in the back with chains, while the story of Hussein is told aloud from the Mosques.

However, the small town of Nabatieh, Lebanon is a little different...here, the ritual is taken to a higher level, with participants striking their heads with large knives, often (as you see above) drawing blood.

A friend of mine from the hostel, who is studying Arabic in Beirut, was informed of the possibility to go and see this celebration by her Arabic teacher. A couple of other friends and I asked if it would be possible for us to join, and after she spoke with her teacher, we were all set to go. The only condition was that we had to wear all black...

Nabatieh is situated south of Beirut, and I believe is far south enough that it is under Hezbollah control, but don't hold me to that statement. The drive there was scenic; lots of agricultural land, rolling hills, and very clear blue skies with snow-capped mountains piercing them.

Upon arrival, the ceremony had just begun, and appeared to be pretty tame.

There was a block of the street blocked off from through-traffic, and we began walking along the sidewalks to catch a glimpse of what was going on. In large groups, men and younger boys would march around this town's block (basically in a full circle) countless times over the next three hours, striking their heads with these knives, and shouting slogans. Medics were abundantly available, and it didn't take much convincing for me to realize that I needed one of those nose- and mouth-covering masks for fear of contamination.

As time went on, the ritual became more and more intense; my mask, however, gave me the gumption to get up really close to some of these folks and take some pretty cool pictures. They were in a trance--they knew I was standing right in front of them, taking pictures (as others were, too; though, they were natives, not tourists--we maybe saw four or five other foreigners at this march) but they didn't seem to really recognize what I was doing. They were so focused on what they were doing, they may as well have been in a totally different world...

After about two hours, I think the bulk of us had seen enough. They were still going, and would continue for about another hour, but some of the people who came with us became very upset.

In fact, the two most upset of all us was the Arabic teacher who had invited us, and an Iranian girl who was also living in Beirut and studying Arabic, in the same class as my friend who had invited me. She said that in Tehran, she had gone to witness al-Ashura before, and that it was nothing like what she saw that day in Nabatieh. She was truly shaken up, and kept insisting that she hoped that we would not take this as representative of Islam in general.

Similarly, the event-organizer said that it was her first and last visit to al-Ashura.

Both girls concurred that this particular form of al-Ashura had become totally disconnected from the real purpose of the commemorative day.

To me, this was ironic. Perhaps it was American naivete, but I had assumed that Iran, a fairly well-known-to-be-conservative Muslim country would have much more severe forms of rituals such as al-Ashura; whereas, in Lebanon, a fairly liberal country, the practice would be much more tame. Once again it became clear to me that the Middle East is a region full of contradictions--there is always more to understand.

Iskandar