SMF News: War Has Crushed the Ziyarat Economy in Najaf and Karbala

For Shia Muslims, ziyarat means visiting a holy person's shrine or sacred site as an act of devotion, remembrance, and spiritual connection. In Najaf and Karbala, ziyarat is not only a religious practice. It also supports the local economy because millions of pilgrims need hotels, transport, food, exchange services, guides, and shops near the shrines. That is why the recent collapse in pilgrimage is hitting local Shia families so hard.

The core story is economic hardship. AFP reporting from Najaf and Karbala says the regional war that began in late February sharply reduced the normal flow of pilgrims from Iran, Lebanon, the Gulf, India, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. In Najaf, shopkeepers described markets that used to be packed with foreign visitors now sitting quiet. A jeweler said Iranian pilgrims once kept entire chains of work alive, from merchants to taxi drivers. (Arab News)

That loss of ziyarat traffic has already turned into layoffs and closures. According to the head of the Najaf hotel association, 80 percent of the city's 250 hotels had closed, and more than 2,000 workers had been laid off or pushed onto unpaid leave. One hotel owner said he had to dismiss five employees and keep only one worker to watch nearly 70 empty rooms. That is not a mild downturn. It is a local economic breakdown. (Arab News)

Karbala is facing the same problem. The head of the city's tourism committee said tourist numbers were down around 95 percent, hundreds of hotels had shut, and tour companies were sitting idle. One operator said his company once handled up to 1,000 visitors a month but was now running at only 10 percent of capacity. For workers whose income depends on pilgrimage seasons, that kind of fall leaves little room to absorb the blow. (Arab News)

The reason this matters so much is that Najaf and Karbala are built around ziyarat. In simple terms, ziyarat in these cities is not just prayer at a shrine. It is the whole pilgrimage economy around the shrines of Imam Ali in Najaf and Imam Hussein and Hazrat Abbas in Karbala. When pilgrims arrive, money moves through hotels, restaurants, transport, markets, currency exchange, tour companies, and shrine area vendors. When pilgrims stop coming, all of that seizes up at once. That is exactly what local business owners are describing now. (Arab News)

The scale of the normal pilgrimage economy helps explain the severity of the shock. Iraqi authorities said that during the 2024 Arbaeen season, more than 3.4 million foreign pilgrims entered Iraq through ten border ports in twenty days. (Iraqi News Agency) Another Iraqi government figure later said Iraq received more than 4.1 million foreign pilgrims from 140 nationalities during Arbaeen. (Iraqi News Agency) Those numbers show how dependent the shrine cities are on large scale religious travel.

Iranian pilgrims are especially important to this economy. Iraqi officials reported in August 2024 that millions of foreign pilgrims were entering Iraq during Arbaeen and specifically identified Iran as the main source of pilgrims, alongside visitors from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, and other countries. (Iraqi News Agency) That helps explain why the current war has hit Najaf and Karbala so hard. It disrupted the very visitor base that keeps many Shia owned local businesses alive.

Even after a ceasefire took effect on April 8 and Iraq reopened its airspace, AFP reported that little changed on the ground in the holy cities. Some Iraqi visitors returned on weekends, but the larger foreign pilgrimage flow did not rebound in a meaningful way. That shows the problem is deeper than flight access alone. A shrine city economy cannot recover just because the skies reopen. It recovers when pilgrims actually return in large numbers and feel safe enough to travel. (Arab News)

This also matters for Iraq's wider economy because religious tourism is one of its important non oil sectors. The World Bank describes Iraq as heavily dependent on oil, which makes losses in non oil activity more damaging. In Najaf and Karbala, ziyarat is one of the clearest non oil engines supporting ordinary livelihoods. When that engine stalls, the burden falls first on workers and small businesses that already have limited protection. (Arab News)

For Shia Muslims in these cities, the hardship is practical and immediate. Rent still has to be paid. Salaries still have to be met. Drivers still need passengers. Shopkeepers still need customers. Tour companies still need bookings. So when ziyarat collapses, it is not just a spiritual silence around the shrines. It becomes lost wages, closed hotels, unpaid leave, and mounting pressure on Shia families whose livelihoods depend on the pilgrims not staying away. (Arab News)