Client Brief Photo essay

Marching for humanity and Justice 

By : Fatima Jasim 

10th September 2019

The Day of Ashura is mourned and remembered by millions of people across the world as the day Hussain and his supporters were killed in The Battle of Karbala. Today, pilgrims from all across the world visit the shrine of Hussain ibn Ali in Karbala where he is buried, to pay their tribute to his courageous stand. To remember these horrible events Muslim Shia come together to march for justice and share Hussain's message. Hussain was loved and respected by society and  choose to prevent evil and only encouraged peace amongst society. Sadly he was killed for having those powerful views on how to make society live in harmony and Justice.  As this happened in the 7th century people from across the world remember his legacy until this day. For me as a young Shia Muslim I find his journey truly inspiring as he stood for what he believed was right. Standing in front of an army with 30,000 men and still not giving up on social justice is something we truly need in society now. Going to this peaceful demonstration felt like home as I was amazed by how many people come every year and how the numbers increase every time. This truly means for me that the message of Hussain is being shared around more. Standing in the middle of the crowd felt like I was back home in Iraq , surrounded by my people who share the same norms and values. As we were waiting to go march free food and drinks were giving out to not only us but random people seeking for answers as to what is going on. With every drink a leaflet was giving out and they were also distributed as the march was going on to give people more information and share the main message. 

The best part in my opinion is holding up the banners saying " Terrorists are enemies of Allah" and " Isis is not Islamic nor a state " this felt powerful to hold up as we are showing people that we are not terrorists and that we don't accept any assumptions made about Muslims in general. From looking at peoples facing along side the march they would agree to what the signs are saying and would compliment us. Hearing this gave me a warm feeling as It feels good to have people agree with you especially dark times like this where you feel like the whole world is against you and want to get rid of you. As we were walking I would get a sense of adrenaline and sorrow as I would remember the horrible events of Karbala. The sense of adrenaline mostly came due to the amount of people walking past and driving past looking and staring at us. Most of the time it was positive but we got a lot of negative looks aswell. the negative complains were mostly from people who got annoyed that the streets were shut down and they couldn't get home , which we apologised for. Other negative feedback was that people just didn't agree with our views and they might not understand the concept of living together in peace. Having different views is fine however if it gets personal or offence doesnt make a person feel better, I mean who doesn't want social justice? Most positive feedback was that we marched in harmony and peace and didn't look aggressive because that would only make people scared as we already have such a bad imagine in the media. 

Marching through the big crowds was scary as a lot of people around the world are against you. Having constantly bad thoughts that you might get attacked or shoot wasn't fun, if anything it made me anxiety and scared. You constantly hear how shooting are happening especially the big shooting that happened in New Zealand was horrible. However people around me seem not to care whenever they would get killed or not as they are doing something good for the last time before departing this world. They were proud if they would get killed in this mazing crowd remembering Allah and the purpose of all this which is Hussain. Thinking about this also made me realise that I am shrouded by people who are brave to go out there on the streets and proudly say that they are Muslim shia , this made me more confident and wanting to be proud of what I believe in.