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Equipped with shovels and wooden coffins, hundreds of Iraqi families have gone to a cemetery on the outskirts of Najaf. They are there to bury their relatives who died in covid-19, and bury them where the family is.
The family of a person who died in covid-19 in the cemetery outside Najaf. The photo is from July.
The sound of crying and prayer is mixed with the clink of shovels and picks. At the crown cemetery in the desert outside Iraqi Najaf, feverish activity prevails.
Since restrictions on the burial of people who died in COVID-19 were relaxed, Iraqi families began making pilgrimages by the hundreds to the graves of their relatives, to bury the bodies and re-bury them in a regular cemetery.
Mohammad al-Bahadli is digging in the hot desert sand with his bare hands to find his father’s body.
– Now he will finally be allowed to be with our people, our family, in the old cemetery, says the 49-year-old, accompanied by sobs from family members.
During the beginning of the pandemic, conventional burials of the Covid-19 dead were banned, and a special cemetery of a simpler type was established on the outskirts of Najaf in central Iraq, a holy city for Shiite Muslims. Only a relative could attend funerals, which often took place in the middle of the night. There are Shia and Sunni Muslims and Christians here.
Moving the bodies of Najaf and re-burying them in family graves has also been banned, as authorities feared the bodies could spread the virus. But on September 7, it was announced that the Covid-19 dead would now be allowed to be unearthed and transferred, in cases where the family so wishes.
Many of those in the cemetery outside Najaf come from other parts of the country.
– He was buried so far from home. “I’m not sure it was done according to all the religious rules,” al-Bahadli said of his 80-year-old father.
Among the graves are Iraqis who brought their own shovels, buckets to carry the sand and new wooden coffins to carry the dead. No medical personnel, who can ensure that the excavations are carried out in the correct way, is visible, according to the correspondent for the AFP news agency.
In several cases, people dug in the wrong places and found the remains of a young man instead of an elderly mother, or an empty coffin. Other bodies have not been draped in funeral garb, something that angered the Shiamilis who conducted the funerals, as required by Islam.
The risks of becoming infected with COVID-19 when handling human remains are low, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The announcement, made in early September, contributed to the Iraqi unrest, although authorities stressed that the bodies can only be moved by “specialized medical teams.”
Abdallah Kareem’s brother, Ahmed, died in the suites of a covid-19 infection. The family has chosen to leave Ahmed here in the cemetery on the outskirts of Najaf, 230 km from his home in Muthanna province, because they fear that violating religious orders will bury him again.
“The gravediggers do not have the right experience or the right equipment,” says Abdallah.
Coronapandemin i Iraq
Iraq, with a population of about 38 million, is one of the Middle Eastern countries hardest hit by the corona pandemic.
In total, more than 280,000 cases have been reported. Almost 8,000 have died.
Source: AFP
