ROB SCHMITZ, HOST:
More than 20 million Shia pilgrims converged on the holy city of Karbala in Iraq this week. The massive annual pilgrimage commemorates the killing of Imam Husayn 14 centuries ago. The pilgrims included more than 3 million Iranians who were also mourning the death of Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei who was killed in U.S. and Israeli airstrikes earlier this year. NPR's Jane Arraf was there. She joins us from Baghdad. Hey, Jane.
JANE ARRAF, BYLINE: Hi there.
SCHMITZ: Wow, 20 million people gathering in one place - that sounds like quite a scene. What was it like to be at this event?
ARRAF: Well, it was kind of incredible, both because of the size and just that powerful demonstration of incredible devotion and belief. So inside the Imam Husayn shrine, where the walls are covered in tiny mirrored mosaics and there are chandeliers hanging, Iranians and other pilgrims gathered around the spot where Imam Husayn was killed in the year 680.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Non-English language spoken, crying).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Singing in non-English language).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Non-English language spoken).
ARRAF: And you can hear the grief there. Arba'in, the name of the commemoration, commemorates the defining event in the split between Shia and Sunni Islam. It's the battle of Karbala, when Imam Husayn, who opposed what he believed was an unfit Islamic ruler, was surrounded by a large army, deprived of water and then beheaded.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Singing in non-English language).
ARRAF: A lot of Iraqis began walking weeks ago to reach Karbala on foot as a sign of devotion. And you have to remember, temperatures here are almost 120 degrees. A lot of Iranians, as well, walked almost 200 miles from the border to reach it.
SCHMITZ: Has the pilgrimage taken on added significance with the war in Iran? I mean, tell us about that.
ARRAF: It absolutely has. A lot of the Iranian pilgrims we spoke with said that more people came this year to commemorate, to mourn and to express their desire for vengeance for the killing of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in February. There were red flags fluttering from the shrine's golden domes, the red for vengeance, for both Imam Husayn and Khamenei. The pilgrims we spoke with included a teacher from Tabreez, Naser Zadeh.
NASER ZADEH: (Non-English language spoken).
ARRAF: He said the Iran war in general and the killing of Khamenei in particular had strengthened resistance against the U.S. and Israel.
SCHMITZ: Now, Jane, you have spent a lot of time in Baghdad in the past - before, during, after the invasion of Iraq. Describe what it looks like right now.
ARRAF: Absolutely. I guess the word would be, it seems shinier. And by that I mean, there's so much new construction - big, new hotels, yeah, government buildings, housing complexes. I mean, there is a financial crisis going on here. But one of the things it says is not just there's economic activity, but that it's safer. And one of the biggest projects, the Iraq Mall, is the third biggest mall in the Middle East.
SCHMITZ: Wow.
ARRAF: And it opened just a few months ago. We paid a visit there yesterday.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ALL LOVE")
KING SIS: (Singing) Promise you'd never lie to me. Keep the moves on tuck.
ARRAF: So there are European shops, American fast food outlets. But the exciting thing for most Iraqis in this heat and electricity shortages is, there is constant air conditioning.
SCHMITZ: Aha.
ARRAF: I spoke with a salesperson at an outlet of a Spanish clothing brand, Dalia al-Ameen, and she had just moved back to Iraq after years abroad, like quite a lot of people. She says Iraqis stayed home at the start of the war in Iran.
DALIA AL-AMEEN: But after a few days no people, they started to go out, and you see the traffic outside till until 2 a.m., 3 a.m. So we got used to it.
ARRAF: And by that, she means they got used to war and the uncertainty of the past two decades.
SCHMITZ: Wow. From a Shia pilgrimage to the Iraq Mall, that is NPR's Jane Arraf. Thanks so much, Jane.
ARRAF: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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