Srinagar, July 19 -- In homes where Hussain is not only mourned but lived, a Shia mother does not wait for her child to grow old enough to understand Karbala. She begins before the child is born.

This is not metaphor. It is practice.

In many homes, during the sacred months, pregnant women recite Ziyarat-e-Ashura while sitting on prayer mats, one hand over their swelling belly.

Some press Turbat-e-Hussain, a warm disc of clay from Karbala, gently to their skin. They believe this soil knows things, that it remembers. And that the child inside might listen, and feel.

She is carrying a child, but she is also carrying a legacy.

In the story of Fatimah al-Zahra lies the origin of this sacred labour.

Fatimah, the Prophet's daughter, Hussai...