Not all Shia are on the same page when it comes to the practice of making self-inflicted wounds - tatbir - on the last day of Ashura Abbas, 19, says the bloodletting ritual is among the most ...

For Shias, Ashura is a day of mourning which commemorates the martyrdom of the Imam al-Husayn. This is considered to be the defining event in Shia history. But for Sunnis, Ashura is a fasting day ...

Shi'ite Muslims in Afghanistan, Iraq and Bangladesh mark the Ashura festival, which commemorates the death of Prophet Mohammad's grandson Imam Hussein in 680AD.