Feyli Kurds open Ashura mourning in Iraq’s Kirkuk

Shafaq News- Kirkuk

Feyli Kurds in Kirkuk, north-central Iraq, opened their annual Husseini mourning gatherings on Friday, marking the start of Muharram ahead of Ashura, the 10th day of the Islamic calendar’s first month and one of the most important Shiite commemorations.

Feyli Kurds are a mostly Shiite Kurdish community with roots along the Iraq-Iran border and communities across Iraq. During the first 10 days of Muharram, like millions of Shiite Muslims across the world, they commemorate the killing of Imam Hussein, the grandson of Prophet Muhammad, with members of his family and companions in the Battle of Karbala in 680 CE. The rituals include mourning gatherings, processions, sermons, and service activities across Iraq and other countries.

Read more: Discover Iraq: Karbala, where memory breathes and future beckons

The gathering was held at the Feyli Kurdish Union headquarters in Kirkuk, with religious figures, community leaders, and mourners attending the first majlis, a mourning assembly dedicated to Imam Hussein. 

Sheikh Hassan Al-Issawi delivered the opening lecture from the Husseini pulpit, focusing on lessons from the Battle of Karbala and Imam Hussein’s stand against injustice. The gathering also included recitations of the maqtal, the account of Imam Hussein’s killing, along with elegies and mourning poems.

Holding Husseini gatherings is “an authentic part of the religious and social identity of Feyli Kurds,” Asaad Dawood Al-Feyli, head of the Feyli Kurdish Union in Kirkuk, told Shafaq News, and the community had preserved the rituals across generations despite “difficult conditions.”

“Muharram serves to recall the principles Imam Hussein died for, including justice, human dignity, and opposition to oppression."

The Feyli Kurdish Union organizes the gatherings every year and receives mourners from different communities in Kirkuk, according to Al-Feyli, making them part of the province’s tradition of coexistence.

Meanwhile, Abu Ali Al-Feyli told Shafaq News that Feyli Kurds mark Husseini rituals annually to renew their link to Imam Hussein’s legacy and introduce younger generations to the meaning of Ashura. These ceremonies remain part of the Feyli community’s religious and cultural heritage and “help promote solidarity, tolerance, and social unity.”