1Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia and Spain’s second-largest city, is a Mediterranean metropolis that has undergone profound social and urban transformations in recent decades. These include the remarkable and rapid pluralisation of its religious landscape, which has replaced the former social (and political) hegemony of Catholicism and has disrupted a process of secularisation that, until very recently, seemed inexorable. This religious diversification has resulted mainly from contemporary international migration from Europe, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia.

2As in other European and global cities (Saint-Blancat, 2019), Barcelona’s public spaces are now witnessing a resurgence in religious events—processions, parades, community meals and street preaching—organised by the various migrant communities. For the past few years, our research has focused on one of these in particular: Ashura celebrated by Shiite Muslims to commemorate the martyrdom of Imam Husayn, grandson of Mohammed, in 680 CE in Karbala, in present-day Iraq (Mervin, 2022). Shiism, a minority branch of Islam worldwide, is represented in Barcelona by the Al-Qaim Islamic community association, which is attended mainly by people of Pakistani origin. Since the end of the 1990s, the association has been based in a small ground-floor space in the Sant Pere, Santa Catarina and Born district, in the city’s old centre.

3Al-Qaim is the only Shiite place of worship in Barcelona among the city’s thirty-two listed mosques. Its history is intertwined with that of Pakistani migration to Barcelona, which began in the late 1970s and increased over subsequent decades. In 2022, there were more than 22,500 Pakistanis in the city. They represent the second largest foreign community in Barcelona after Italians and a significant proportion of the 92,000 Pakistanis residing in Spain (Ajuntament de Barcelona, 2022). Less feminised than other groups (with 72.6% men and 27.4% women), Pakistanis in Barcelona mainly come from the rural region of Punjab. In addition to community expression, they are highly visible in the city’s commercial fabric, as well as in other sectors, such as taxi driving (Güell and Parella, 2023). This trend is also reflected in the Al-Qaim association, whose founder arrived from Punjab in the mid-1980s and used to own two bakeries in the Santa Caterina district. While the vast majority of Al-Qaim’s members are of Pakistani origin, during our study we encountered individuals of other nationalities and origins who were involved in the association’s activities. They included a man of Iranian origin, who was very active in maintaining the place of worship and organising various events, and a Catalan man in his seventies, who had converted to Shia Islam and played a major role in the community’s initial negotiations with the local authorities (Astor et al., 2023).

A Procession that Winds through the Neighbourhood’s Streets

5The central component of the Ashura commemoration in Barcelona is a procession of several hundred people, winding through the area surrounding the community’s place of worship and terminating in an open square with a sermon and a meal. Throughout the procession, the men, dressed in black robes, perform matam: a form of self-flagellation that consists of beating one’s chest with one’s hand while singing and reciting elegies in remembrance of the martyrdom of Imam Husayn and his companions (Photograph 1).

6The form taken by matam varies both across and within different countries, according to the currents of thought inspired by the various Shiite religious leaders. While some endorse self-flagellation with knives, others (notably the Iranian authorities) disapprove of it, even forbidding it, while recommending more flexible forms of lamentation. In diasporic contexts, the form of matam is also conditioned by restrictions imposed by public authorities. In Barcelona, matam is performed in public in a bloodless form, although some members of the community continue to use sharp instruments in private spaces or during their trips to Pakistan or Iraq.

7The active lamentation by men contrasts with the more discreet role of women. They follow the procession in a cortège separated from the men by a black banner with religious inscriptions (Photograph 2).

8The women also recite, but the performativity of their lamentation and the beating of their chests is much softer, sometimes inaudible. The procession also includes several material and symbolic elements, such as a coffin representing the death of Imam Husayn, banners and flags carried by members of the community, and the colour black, which defines the clothing of the mourners (Photograph 3).

9However, unlike in other European cities or in the so-called “Muslim world” (Degli Esposti, 2018), during the Barcelona procession we did not observe any political posters in support of the Palestinian people or contemporary international Shiite political movements.

Organisational Efforts Involving Local Authorities

10The Ashura procession, much like the one organised by the community during the month of Ramadan to commemorate Imam Ali, is carefully planned and supervised by members of the association. These processions are not merely expressions of piety; they also have a civic dimension aimed at the general public and local political authorities. They recreate a form of performativity in which the expression of religious piety is combined with a conspicuous acceptance of the majority’s social and political norms (Astor et al., 2023). This is evident in various objects and symbols, such as the fluorescent jackets that identify those responsible for order and security, and which are reminiscent of the forms of supervision seen in non-religious events, such as trade union or political demonstrations, or popular festivals (Photograph 4).

11As in these other events, the Al-Qaim escorts are supposed to manage the crowd. They are responsible for regulating the pace of the procession, while at the same time ensuring that it is not affected or interrupted by passers-by and people from outside the community. Their presence, which is conspicuous and identifiable due to their jackets, is intended to project the image of a well-organised event that complies with the norms for occupying the city’s public space.

12From this perspective, the organisation of the procession is not just the work of certain devoted members of the community: it is also the result of regulations imposed by public authorities (Albert-Blanco and Martínez-Cuadros, 2021). Barcelona’s City Council now plays a very active role in shaping the conditions and particular form of this religious event. In 2004, it established an Office for Religious Affairs (OAR, Oficina d’Afers Religiosos), which is part of the municipal hierarchy and reports to a deputy mayor. The OAR liaises with the city’s religious communities, particularly those considered “minority” communities (Griera, 2012). OAR officials have played an important role, working with Al-Qaim to ensure the smooth organisation of the Ashura celebrations. Alongside other municipal representatives, such as those working as part of the Ciutat Vella (old city) district council or the local police, they are responsible for granting the administrative permits needed to occupy public space and for facilitating certain material aspects, such as sound equipment or barriers to mark out the space for the sermon and meal that take place after the procession (Photograph 5).

13These actions, which form part of a broader political strategy for accommodating the city’s religious diversity, have been supplemented in recent years by the publication of an information leaflet on Ashura, which is distributed to passers-by during the procession (Photograph 6).

14The active involvement of the City Council reflects a political will to recognise the city’s religious diversity, while also exerting a measure of control and supervision. In the case of Ashura, the City Council’s political officials and technical staff contributed to creating an “acceptable” public religious event adapted to majoritarian uses of the urban space. In addition to banning the use of sharp instruments for self-flagellation, the City Council has long required Shia Muslims to perform matam with their torsos covered. This is based on a general rule, approved by the city in 2005, prohibiting people from walking around the city in swimming attire or without a T-shirt. It was originally designed to combat the “incivilities” of young adults or tourists. Paradoxically, a norm aimed at regulating the “excesses” of tourism in the old centre of Barcelona affects the form taken by a religious commemoration, making it part of respecting “urban civility” (Griera and Burchardt, 2020). However, during our recent observations in 2021 and 2022, we noticed a relaxation of this norm, with several participants in the procession performing matam bare-chested, as a result of meetings and negotiations between the religious community and municipal officials. In addition, Catalan regional television reported on the 2022 Ashura commemoration that “for the first time”, and worshippers were allowed to take part in the procession without a T-shirt.

A Changing Route in a Coveted Urban Space

15The municipality also seems to influence the route of the procession, which, surprisingly, never follows the same course. During the first years of Ashura commemorations in public space, the procession ended in Plaça de Sant Pere, a few metres from the Al-Qaim community’s place of worship. However, over time, worshippers have extended their route to Lluis Companys Avenue, located on the north-eastern border of the neighbourhood, where Barcelona’s Arc de Triomf and the main entrance to Ciutadella Park are situated. This position makes the avenue one of the city’s major tourist and social hubs, which is one of the reasons the community chooses to end the procession there. This has not always been possible, due to the popularity of the area stemming from its central location. In June 2018, the procession commemorating Imam Ali during Ramadan ended at the Parc de l’Estació del Nord, on the other side of the avenue. This was because of a regulation prohibiting public activities with “sound systems” after 8 p.m. on weekdays during the summer season on Lluís Companys Avenue. Several months later, in September, the community was once again unable to use Lluís Companys Avenue, this time because the procession coincided with La Mercè celebrations, the city’s festival in honour of one of its patron saints, Saint Mercè. The avenue was closed off to prepare the stage for some of the shows and concerts on the festival programme. In 2020 and 2021, the location of the Ashura commemoration was affected by COVID-19 restrictions. In 2020, processions commemorating Imam Ali and Imam Husayn were suspended, while in 2021 the City Council authorised a static, non-processional commemoration. For the commemoration scheduled during the month of Ramadan, the municipality allocated a space in Ciutadella Park, while for the Ashura commemoration it granted permission to use an enclosed space in the neighbouring Raval district. In 2022, the commemorations returned to “normal”, with the procession resuming its usual route through the neighbourhood, ending in Plaça de Sant Pere for Ramadan and Lluís Companys Avenue for Ashura (Photograph 7).

16The Ashura procession, much like the procession organised during Ramadan, arouses the curiosity of local residents, occasional visitors and tourists, who abound in this part of the city (Photograph 8).

17This curiosity seems to have replaced explicit forms of rejection documented in the early 2000s, when the community began to commemorate Ashura in public spaces. Today, it can be seen in the fascinated gaze of passers-by, surprised to come across a minority religious expression temporarily occupying a public space that is otherwise dominated by Catholic symbols and artefacts. The Shiite ritual stands in stark contrast not only to the signs of a historically hegemonic religion, but also to the urban markers of a neighbourhood in the old city that is fully integrated into the shopping and leisure routes of Barcelona’s tourists.

18Studying the Ashura commemoration in Barcelona requires us to go beyond observing its evolution or focusing on the dynamics of diasporic Shiite Islam. As highlighted by the above discussion and photographs, a thorough ethnography of Ashura in Barcelona entails a broader examination of the form taken by religion (particularly minority religious expressions) in a European city today. It also reveals the unequal appropriation of space in a context marked by tourism and urban transformation, where society and public authorities grapple with religious and cultural diversity which, to gain full acceptance, must adapt to majority norms and conceptions of public space.