Ashula

03/24/02, Kabul, Afghanistan-Afghan Shiites, long persecuted by The Taliban, celebrated their holiest day with self-flagellation, called Tegh Zani, hitting with blades, at Qabre Aqai Balkhi, grave of Master Balkhi, in Afshar, Kabul, Afghanistan. The holiday of Ashura is when Shiites remember the death in 680 A.D. of Imam Hussein, a grandsonof the Prophet Muhammad, the event that led to the split in Islam between Shiites and Sunni Muslims. In Afghanistan, the split also runs along ethnic lines, with most of the country's Shiites from the Hazara ethinicity that makes up about 10 percent of the population. (Cr:Chang W. Lee/The New York Times) Sack#200202670

03/24/02, Kabul, Afghanistan-Afghan Shiites, long persecuted by The Taliban, celebrated their holiest day with self-flagellation, called Zanjer Zani, hitting with chain, at Takya Khani-e-Afshal, Mosque of Afshal, in Afshar, Kabul, Afghanistan. The holiday of Ashura is when Shiites remember the death in 680 A.D. of Imam Hussein, a grandsonof the Prophet Muhammad, the event that led to the split in Islam between Shiites and Sunni Muslims. In Afghanistan, the split also runs along ethnic lines, with most of the country's Shiites from the Hazara ethinicity that makes up about 10 percent of the population. (Cr:Chang W. Lee/The New York Times) Sack#200202670

03/24/02, Kabul, Afghanistan-Afghan Shiites, long persecuted by The Taliban, celebrated their holiest day with self-flagellation, called Tegh Zani, hitting with blades, at Qabre Aqai Balkhi, grave of Master Balkhi, in Afshar, Kabul, Afghanistan. The holiday of Ashura is when Shiites remember the death in 680 A.D. of Imam Hussein, a grandsonof the Prophet Muhammad, the event that led to the split in Islam between Shiites and Sunni Muslims. In Afghanistan, the split also runs along ethnic lines, with most of the country's Shiites from the Hazara ethinicity that makes up about 10 percent of the population. (Cr:Chang W. Lee/The New York Times) Sack#200202670

03/24/02, Kabul, Afghanistan-Afghan Shiites, long persecuted by The Taliban, celebrated their holiest day with self-flagellation, called Sena Zani, hitting chest, at Takya Khani-e-Karatah Sakhe in Karatah Sakhe village, Kabul, Afghanistan. The holiday of Ashura is when Shiites remember the death in 680 A.D. of Imam Hussein, a grandsonof the Prophet Muhammad, the event that led to the split in Islam between Shiites and Sunni Muslims. In Afghanistan, the split also runs along ethnic lines, with most of the country's Shiites from the Hazara ethinicity that makes up about 10 percent of the population. (Cr:Chang W. Lee/The New York Times) Sack#200202670

03/24/02, Kabul, Afghanistan-A man looked at the chains before they started to celebrate their holiest day with self-flagellation, called Zanjer Zani, hitting with chain, at Takya Khani-e-Afshal, Mosque of Afshal, in Afshar, Kabul, Afghanistan. The holiday of Ashura is when Shiites remember the death in 680 A.D. of Imam Hussein, a grandsonof the Prophet Muhammad, the event that led to the split in Islam between Shiites and Sunni Muslims. In Afghanistan, the split also runs along ethnic lines, with most of the country's Shiites from the Hazara ethinicity that makes up about 10 percent of the population. (Cr:Chang W. Lee/The New York Times) Sack#200202670

03/24/02, Kabul, Afghanistan-Afghan Shiites, long persecuted by The Taliban, celebrated their holiest day with self-flagellation, called Tegh Zani, hitting with blades, at Qabre Aqai Balkhi, grave of Master Balkhi, in Afshar, Kabul, Afghanistan. The holiday of Ashura is when Shiites remember the death in 680 A.D. of Imam Hussein, a grandsonof the Prophet Muhammad, the event that led to the split in Islam between Shiites and Sunni Muslims. In Afghanistan, the split also runs along ethnic lines, with most of the country's Shiites from the Hazara ethinicity that makes up about 10 percent of the population. (Cr:Chang W. Lee/The New York Times) Sack#200202670