Muharram in Bahrain

The past few days have been important for Shiites in Bahrain. This month is a period of mourning over the Imam Hussain who was killed in battle and was the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed.

Right now all over Bahrain, black flags hang along the outsides of mosques. The narrow streets of old Manama are filled with these flags and banners that in neon stitching say Ya Hussain something something. Stands with food and warm drinks outline the roads and cars are banned from entering this area where old homes, Mosques, Maatem's cluster and people march through the low mess of buildings in all black and in somber remembrance of Imam Hussain. Boys and men pounded their chest in unison, creating a beat that everyone followed; some groups of men used these short chains that they hit their shoulders with, again in unison and to a certain beat.

I too had been wearing all black: a black hijab and a black abaya which made me fit right in and brown cowboy boots which made me fit right out again. Us ladies watched the men from side stoops. After some time, I completely forgot that I was wearing a hijab and abaya and could have been in jeans and a t-shirt and wouldn't have felt the difference. But once I got too comfortable, my hijab would fall back and I would step on my abaya while walking or sitting and get stuck in the black cloth.

I'll be going to old Manama again for Muharram tomorrow night, the last and most intense night of the whole thing. I think that I will feel different tomorrow night, than I did the two previous nights so I might write a part II to this post.

If you want to learn more about Muharram, look it up, I'm in no way qualified enough to explain the history and terms. If you want to know more details about how I felt during the whole thing and details of how the streets look and sound, and how the people march and how the drinks they serve taste, then come to Bahrain. No no just joking, email me or I'll explain when I see you.

*thanks for bringing me to this girlies