Millions of mourners turn out in different cities across Iran to mark Ashura, the martyrdom anniversary of Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Imam Hussein.
Every year, black-clad mourners mark the occasion with mourning processions or ceremonies held at mosques. The rituals involve beating of their chests, and reciting elegies in honor of Imam Hussein, the third Shia imam. Ashura is the 10th day of the Muslim calendar month of Muharram. It is the day when Imam Hussein and seventy-two of his companions were martyred in the plains of Karbala in modern-day Iraq. They were killed by forces of the tyrannical ruler of the time, Yazid, in the battle of Karbala in 680 AD.