Quranic Booths Set Up for Women in Arbaeen Pilgrimage
According to Qaaf news agency, Amal Al-Matouri, an official with the organizing committee of the pilgrimage, said the special booths have been set up by the Women Section of the holy shrines in Iraq in cooperation with the members of Quranic institutes affiliated to Iraq’s Union of Quranic Gatherings.
He said that the booths host women in 12 provinces of Iraq from Basra to the holy city of Karbala.
Marziyeh Heydar, head of the Holy Quran Department affiliated to the Women Affairs’ Center of Imam Ali’s (AS) holy shrine, said that the Quran Supreme Council of Iraq has also cooperated in setting up the booths for the pilgrims.
She added that Quranic activities in the booths started concurrent with the beginning of the Arbaeen march from the southern provinces of Iraq earlier this week.
Correction of the pilgrims’ Quran reading, particularly the Surahs Fatiha and Ikhlas, organizing Quranic contests and holding religious sessions are some of the activities in the booths.
Arbaeen, which is one of the largest religious gatherings in the world, comes 40 days after Ashura, the martyrdom anniversary of the third Shia Imam, Imam Hussein (AS).
Each year, a huge crowd of Shias flock to Karbala, where the holy shrine of Imam Hussein (AS) is located, to perform mourning rites. Many of them also visit Imam Ali’s (AS) holy shrine in Najaf.
In the past few years, around 20 million pilgrims from all over the world, including Iran, took part in the mourning ceremonies in the Iraqi holy cities marking Arbaeen.
This year, Arbaeen falls on Thursday, November 9.
