Studying Power and Resistance Relations in Contemporary World: An Ethnographic Analysis of the Experience of the 2015 Arbaeen March

This paper is part of a study that tries to offer a description of the Arbaeen March and explains its socio-anthropological and media and cultural studies significance. The march attracts people from various parts of Iraq and across world and ends in Karbala. The welcome and participation of people in the Arbaeen March as a field of study and a cultural space encouraged us to get involved in the Arbaeen March in 2015 and 2016 for 21 days in the company of others. The March took place at a distance of 240 km. the question here is why has Arbaeen become an extra-national phenomenon. we will use Turner’s approach, to explain how the marchers separate from everyday-life and experienced a limen and ‘threshold’ status within the social context. This is a state of liberation from the symbols of modernized life, followed by the unity and being together in conditions. Such condition is the same for every participant, a condition that is free from social constraints and monotonous conditions of daily life. Such separation is not experienced in normal social situations. The field research of the present study consists of rituals and how they can reflect power and resistance relations.