Temple of God

Kerbala, Iraq

May 30, 2023

The name of the city is odd mix of the Babylonian word for a prayer room – kerb and Aramaic for God – El, thus Kerbala is God’s prayer room. Being the home of the shrine of Imam Hussain, it is one of the two major sites for Shia pilgrims in Iraq and my next stop in heading south from Baghdad.

I arrived from Baghdad in a shared taxi ride, the most common mode of travel between towns in Iraq. I was dressed in the three-times-too-large clothes bought specifically for Iraq, a scarf swathed around my head and neck and a hat shoved on top for good measure. Wearing a giant backpack on my back and the smaller one in front in my usual travel mode, I walked into the central pedestrianized area near the shrine, in search of a hotel. But even this voluminous clothing is deemed inadequate for these holy cities and women are required to wear the all-enveloping abaya with only the face showing. I bought an abaya from one of the many stalls lining the street and hoped to get to a hotel before I could don it. But there are men parked at intervals along the street, the morality police, I suppose to keep an eagle eye. Soon I was barred from walking further and made to detour around a block. But barely a block later I came under the microscope again by the next couple of the morality police and they were adamant. I held out the newly-bought abaya; it was patently clear that it was physically impossible for me to don it myself without taking the packs off. Heaven forbid I reveal what the packs hid! Shaking his head in rueful distaste, the man pulled the single opening around my head and pulled down the tentlike cloth around me with sharp tugs. And off I went looking like an upright Bactrian camel with mismatched and misplaced humps.

The street encircles the two shrines at either end and is lined with shops. There are water stations and rubbish bins at intervals along the street apparently used, because unlike the usual rubbish-strewn streets, this is remarkably clean. The shops run the gamut from rosaries to talismans to clothing to food stalls selling shawarmas and fruit juice. An unusually large percentage of shops sell sweets of every kind imaginable. And they have a non-stop stream of buyers. Going on pilgrimage seems to comprise of visiting the shrine, shopping and a vacation all rolled into one. For those unable to walk, there are handcarts and plenty riding them.

Abaya donned I ventured out to the shrine. The 106°F heat was not exactly conducive to unbridled enthusiasm and I was in no mood for further security checks needed to enter the inner sanctum. Wandering around the perimeter of shrines, I marveled at the architecture and the sheer beauty of the designs. They truly are works of art made with painstaking care and the photos barely do them justice.

There were pilgrims aplenty, many of them in the shaded canopies. Thick carpets line the sides and areas are staked out by groups and families. Some eat, some sleep, some sit chatting and a few deign to be photographed.