Shiadom

It seems an unwisely conferred blessing really for the Kazvini is known throughout Persia as the biggest rogue in Shiadom.

In the middle of Shalmi, the working-class inner sanctum of Lahori Shiadom, I find myself swept along a tide of sweat, blood and tears at four in the morning.

As long as the holiest sites in Shiadom —Najaf and Karbala — were located in Iraq, the ayatollahs regarded that part of the country as their appanage, viewing as an abomination secular Ba'thists' attempts to dictate affairs in the South.