Kadhimiya, Baghdad, Iraq

(EPA/SHEHAB AHMED)

Shi’ite pilgrims beat their heads with daggers to show religious devotion in the mourning of the death of Imam Hussein, during the annual ritual marking Ashura Day, in the Shiite holy city of Kadhimiya in Baghdad, Iraq on 27 December 2009. Muslims across the world are observing Moharram, the first month of Islamic calender, the climax of Moharram is the Ashura festival commemorating the martyrdom of Imam Hussein a grandson of the Prophet Mohammed in the Iraqi city of Karbala in the seventh century.