Return of once forbidden Ashoura chants signals Shiite revival
After Saddam Hussein's fall in 2003, once forbidden Shiite hymns have become highly popular as part of a general religious revival in the Shiite community.
The Fatima media shop in Babel province, in the south of Iraq, has dozens of CDs containing religious songs and Husseini poems. But there has been a marked decline of the pop songs that were prevalent in Iraq before 2003.
Speaking to Al-Monitor in Babel, shopkeeper Abbas Kamel said that the “sale of religious CDs to members of the Shiite community reaches its apex during the 10 days of Ashoura and at other religious occasions. The rest of the year, the [sales figures are lower].”
Shiite Muslims celebrate Ashoura for 10 days every year, ending on the 10th day of the month of Muharram in the Islamic calendar, the day Hussein ibn Ali, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, was killed in the battle of Al-Taf in Karbala, south of Baghdad, in 680.
On the road from Baghdad to Babel, where taxis race to transport clients over the 100 kilometers [62 miles] separating the two cities, taxi driver Reda al-Asadi plays a CD by religious singer Bassem al-Karbalai. When the CD ends, Asadi inserts another CD by another religious singer.
