- Title: Iraq's Mandaean community celebrates Pronaya
- Date: 17th March 2025
- Summary: BASRA, IRAQ (MARCH 15, 2025) (REUTERS) (PART MUTE) VARIOUS OF DRONE FOOTAGE SHOWING MEMBERS OF THE SABEAN-MANDAEAN COMMUNITY GATHERING BY SHATT AL-ARAB RIVER SIDE (MUTE) VARIOUS OF MEMBERS OF THE SABEAN-MANDAEAN COMMUNITY PERFORMING A PURIFICATION RITUAL VARIOUS OF RESPONSIBLE FOR WOMEN MEMBERS OF THE SABEAN-MANDAEAN COMMUNITY IN BASRA, MUNIRA KHALAF, SITTING ON A CHAIR IN
- Embargoed:
- Keywords: IRAQ MANDAEAN POLLUTION RELIGION WATER
- Location: BASRA AND BAGHDAD, IRAQ
- City: BASRA AND BAGHDAD, IRAQ
- Country: Iraq
- Topics: Middle East,Religion/Belief,Society/Social Issues
- Reuters ID: LVA001932317032025RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Members of Iraq's Sabean-Mandaean community gathered by banks of rivers in Basra and Baghdad, celebrating Pronaya, one of the holiest festivals in the annual Mandaean calendar.
Once a year and for five days, Mandaean men and women - dressed in ceremonial white robes, referred to as "Rasta" - perform rituals by and in the water, including drinking from the river.
But members of the community said the "excessive salinity and the terrible pollution in Shatt al-Arab" river in Basra were complicating rituals and causing sickness to Mandaeans.
The port city is building new sewage treatment facilities to combat the polluted water of Shatt al-Arab river, once a vibrant freshwater lifeline that runs through Basra, that finds its way into drinking water.
"How can one use polluted water to invoke the name of the Lord? How do you perform ablutions with it and mention the name of the Lord? Yet, we are obliged (to do it), because our religious texts emphasise the use of running water - but it lacks cleanliness and purity, unfortunately," a religious member of the community added.
The holy act of submergence into water for baptism is a key, repetitive ritual for Mandaeans.
The Sabaean-Mandaean sect is one of the oldest in the world, still surviving in Iraq and southwest Iran. Although most scholars date the beginnings of Mandaeism sometime in the first three centuries AD, its exact origins remain unclear.
Little is known about the ethno-religious group, whose adherents recognise John the Baptist as a prophet, and, although he is not the founder, revere him as one of their greatest teachers.
(Production: Mohammed Atti, Thaier Al-Sudani, Maher Nazeh, Mohammed Benmansour) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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