Nassiriya religious sites thronging with visitors

THI-QAR / IraqiNews.com: Mohammed Rahma, an 11-passenger taxicab driver, is an eager beaver who wakes up at 3:00 a.m. to reserve a place in a long queue of other cabs mostly heading to the Sayyed Khudeir area, 10 km south of al-Nassiriya. “This is our season when local residents are swarming the city exits to visit religious sites, namely Sayyed Khudeir because it’s the only outing place in a city that is beginning to suffocate with population,” Rahma told IraqiNews.com. Religious sites surrounding the city are receiving hordes of visitors to spend the Eidul-Adha holiday in the absence of entertainment places in the populous province of Thi-Qar. “I work everyday during the Eid holiday from dawn until 6:00 p.m. to get the visitors there. Several families agree with me to bring them back on the following day after they spend the night there,” he said. “Usually I wait for the visitors to drive them back home before darkness descends in the site, where most necessary services are available for families that have no place to go during the Eid now that children are eager to go anywhere on this occasion,” Rahma added. Hadj Khidr, a resident of the areas surrounding the site, said on non-Eid days visitors of the site are about 80, save Fridays on which the visitors could be numbered in hundreds. “During the Eid, the number climbs to thousands because the area is safe for the trip is inexpensive for the middle class and low-income families,” said Khidr. Riad Jeheid al-Safi, the official in charge of the Sayyed Khudeir tomb, said the site belongs to a child offspring of the Prophet Muhammad, who was buried in the area, and held in high esteem by the locals. Hassan Ali, a resident of the area, said some visitors come from afar but the majority is from Nassiriya who want to change scenes during the Eid and children seek spacious places to run and hop in a city that lacks fine places of entertainment. Nearby was Umm Rasheed, 40, a visitor coming from Souk al-Shyoukh area, 25 km east of the site, giving out sweets and cheering as she is fulfilling a vow to disperse five kilograms of candies and mixed nuts. “I come to the site along with all my grandchildren on the Eids and whenever we can on other days,” she told IraqiNews.com. The site has many stores that sell children’s toys and cookies as well as the items of vow gifts like incense, henna and black and green fabrics depending on the vow occasion. Some peddlers are here and there in the place to eke out a living by selling traditional beverage and cookies usually served on the Eid days. Hassan, a 15-year-old young boy, is a school student who tries to win his allowance money from this “simple” job during the Eid. “We don’t ask for much for these small bags filled with sweets and nuts. Sometimes, we leave it for the buyers’ estimate,” said Hassan. Thi-Qar, 380 km south of Baghdad, has an area of 12,900 square kilometers (4,980.7 sq mi). In 2003 the estimated population of the governorate was 1,454,200 people. Thi-Qar was the second Iraqi province where security responsibilities were transferred from the Multi-National Force (MNF) to the Iraqis. The province’s capital is the city of al-Nassiriya. It also includes the ancient Sumerian ruins of Ur, Eridu, Lagash and Ngirsu. Before 1976 the province was known as al-Muntafiq. AmR (I) 2