Iran: pilgrimage with a click
Mashhad (AsiaNews/Agencies) In Iran, run by a newly elected ultraconservative president, Ahmadinejad, the web continues to be subject to strict controls, with filter systems to prevent messages from political and religious opponents. But the multi-media era also allows the many followers of the Imam Reza, the eighth successor of Mohammed, to make a pilgrimage to his tomb in the sanctuary of Mashhad, Iran's second largest city in the north-east, where he was killed in 817. How? Simply by clicking on the site www.aqrazavi.org.
The superviser of the sanctuary said: "We set up the site with photos for those impatient Shi'ites who want to feel permanently connected to the eighth Imam." Around two million pilgrims visit Mashhad each year.
Some of Iran's most senior clerics already have Web sites, posting religious edicts on the Web.
There are around 3,200,000 interauts out of nearly 70 million inhabitants in Iran.
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