The Arba'een is a significant religious gathering amongst Shiite Muslims at the end of the 40-day mourning period of Hussain Ibn Ali. Millions of foreign and domestic pilgrims have gathered in Karbala to commemorate Imam Hussain, marking the largest Islamic pilgrimage since the coronavirus pandemic.

People from all over the world in contingents walk towards Karbala, the majority of them starting from Najaf, to mark Arba'een. More than 65 million have gathered in Karbala, Iraq to commemorate Imam Hussain on Arba’een.
What makes Arba'een historically significant is that this day marks the return of the Household of the Prophet Muhammad to Karbala after their release from captivity. After Hussain ibn Ali, his family members and companions were martyred in battle at Karbala in the 7th century, the heads of the martyrs were severed, raised upon spears, and taken to Damascus along with those who survived and were held captive.
This event has turned into a great phenomenon. There happens to be no similar gathering organized with such hospitality and compassion. The Shia Grand Ayatollah including Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei, Ayatollah Syed Ali Sistani, and other clergies have encouraged Muslims to visit Karbala at the event of Arba'een and emphasized its significance. People from different Islamic denominations participate in this Arba'een walk. It brings together people from different cultures and ethnicities. This event has great religious, political, and social significance as it revolves around Hussain, who is seen as the symbol of faith, courage, truth, justice, patience, and resistance against falsehood and tyranny.
In the past 1,400 years of Islamic history, Shiites have not been so free as compared to after 2003. Various governments followed different policies, some banned manifestation to the family of the Prophet and, especially Imam Hussain. Shiites have faced harsh consequences such as humiliation, torture, death, and imprisonment. During the time of Saddam Hussain, publicly mourning for Imam Hussain was a punishable offense. It still is a punishable offense in certain countries like Saudi Arabia and Bahrain and in some places the procession is banned. The shrine of Hussain was plundered and demolished multiple times by various governments and armed groups, since the rule of Umayyads to Iraq's dictator Saddam Hussain. Abbasid Caliph Al-Mutawakil even leveled the sacred grave of Imam Hussain in 850 A.D and persecuted anyone visiting it.
In 2014 with the rise of ISIS in Iraq, the People's Mobilization Unit (Hashd Ash Shaabi) came into existence, and people volunteered to fight ISIS after Ayatollah Syed Ali Sistani's call to arms. Ayatollah Sistani's fatwa came when ISIS threatened to march towards Southern Iraq. Iran joined hands with Iraq to protect the holy sanctuaries and to eliminate ISIS from the region. The soldiers of PMU, the Iraq army and IRGC are today serving meals to pilgrims as a token of respect and guarding the pilgrims against the threat from Daesh and likes.
After centuries of suppression, people from all over the world are visiting Karbala to pay tributes to Imam Hussain on Arba'een. A strange phenomenon one witnesses in this pilgrimage is that unlike other pilgrimages, pilgrims spend money to visit Karbala to walk, most of the pilgrims do not rest at hotels but on roadside camps referred to as Mawakibs during this 80-kilometer walk under the scorching sun. The volunteers who serve the Zawaar E Hussain (Pilgrims) are grateful to the visitors for accepting their service in the name of Hussain than vice-versa. People of Iraq throw open their houses for pilgrims to use. Despite the language barriers, people tend to communicate with each using different methods to communicate. This compassion and symbolic love for Hussain can only be felt through experience.
A person plans and prays for his visit to Karbala on the event of Arba'een. Once they are set to visit Karbala, there are gatherings at their native places. When pilgrims leave their native places, they are seen off and the elegies of Imam Hussain are recited and moist eyes bid farewell to Imam Hussain's pilgrims in most Shite societies. In Kashmir, a special marsiya Mazmoon E Kitaab (Eulogy) is recited by a eulogy reciter on this occasion. This eulogy enunciates a conversation between Imam Hussain and a pilgrim at the shrine of Imam Hussain in a dream. There are similar eulogies in other Shiite societies throughout the world. Those who are unable to visit Karbala commemorate Arab'een at their native places.
Moreover, this Arba'een Walk is a political statement. The pilgrimage is a march in support of truth and humanity, and against falsehood, oppression, and tyranny. The pilgrims witness Mawakibs that have hoardings of martyrs from all modern movements that include Yemen's Ansarullah, Palestinian Hamas, Lebanese Hezbollah, Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Iraq's Hash Ash Shaabi, Kataib Hezbollah, and Jaish Al Mahdi as a perpetual reminder for pilgrims. People from India, Pakistan, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Kashmir, and other regions also make their presence felt. In January 2020, the President of the United States of America threatened to bombard the religious sites of Shiites after the assassination of Iranian General Qasim Soleimani, attracting criticism from UNESCO.
Arbaeen happens to be an underreported event by most of the world media. Social media platforms are flooded with pictures and videos of Arbaeen walk from the last few days. World media seem clueless about such a huge event in the age of the internet. Interaction with facts, events, people, and ideas that inform society to at least some degree without any bias is what most media agencies claim to do as journalism but this policy of cluelessness raises questions about their claims.