AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): Speaking at a press conference for the closing ceremony of the eleventh Global Arbaeen Award, held at the Islamic Culture and Relations Organization, Hojat al-Islam Sayed Mostafa Hosseini Neyshabouri outlined the objectives, scope, and statistics of the international event.
He said the Global Arbaeen Award was designed to internationalize Arbaeen as a religious and cultural phenomenon, describing it as an event that conveys a human-centered, innate, and transnational message.
He added that the Islamic Culture and Communication Organization, given its international mandate and legal mission, has consistently prioritized Arbaeen, culture, and spirituality, and that the award was established within this framework.
Hosseini Neyshabouri emphasized that international audiences who have only heard or read about Arbaeen may grasp only part of its reality. However, when the experience is conveyed through visual, artistic, and sensory storytelling, it raises profound questions, particularly in a world where, in one place, killing, plunder, and genocide occur with the approval of self-proclaimed human rights powers, while elsewhere, devotees from diverse nations, ethnicities, languages, and religions come together with reason, compassion, and devotion to the ideals of Ashura, forming an unprecedented gathering.
He noted that the Arbaeen Walk is not merely a festival or an ordinary march, but a ritual, a school, and a formative process. Participants, he said, feel that with each step their spirituality and personal growth deepen. This shared experience unites individuals in a collective emotional and spiritual state, making Arbaeen a unique phenomenon on a global scale.
Presenting comparative statistics from previous editions, he said the eighth edition featured five categories and received 4,818 submissions; the ninth edition expanded to eight categories and attracted 1,250 works from 38 countries; and the tenth edition included seven categories with 3,182 submissions from 42 countries. This year, the eleventh edition, maintaining the same seven categories, received 35,816 works from 47 countries, demonstrating unprecedented growth in both volume and quality.
He explained that the seven categories include “Books and Arbaeen Studies,” “Documentary Film,” “Photography (Professional and Non-Professional),” “Social Media Activists,” “Poetry,” “Travelogues and Personal Reflections,” and “Arbaeen Chants and Melodies.”
Referring to the geographic diversity of participants, Hosseini Neyshabouri said submissions were received from countries including Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, Greece, Algeria, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Spain, Afghanistan, Australia, the United States, Nigeria, Turkey, Kuwait, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Tajikistan, Armenia, Bangladesh, the United Arab Emirates, France, Germany, Yemen, Indonesia, Thailand, Morocco, Ethiopia, Qatar, Malaysia, Jordan, Turkmenistan, Canada, Tanzania, and dozens of others, highlighting the award’s wide national and geographic reach.
In the final part of his remarks, he announced that after ten editions of the award, and given that Karbala is the birthplace of Arbaeen, approval was granted by the head of the Islamic Culture and Communication Organization to hold the closing ceremony of the eleventh Global Arbaeen Award in Iraq for the first time. The ceremony will take place in Karbala on the 15th of Rajab, in line with previous years’ scheduling.
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