Exploring the Experience of "Faithful Suffering" in Female Pilgrimage (Case Study: Pilgrimageto Imam Hussein (AS) on Arbaeen)

"Female pilgrimage" is a distinct type of pilgrimage that is shaped by environmental and cultural elements, reasons for action by the actors, functions, harms, outcomes, applications, and so forth. The experience of women in "faithful suffering" during the pilgrimage to holy shrines, such as the Arbaeen pilgrimage, is a complex process that can be examined through a phenomenological approach. This approach is based on the assumption that experience can be represented through direct interaction with the world and its phenomena. Given the significance of this issue, this study investigates the lived experience of faithful suffering among 13 female pilgrims through interviews. In this representation, after analyzing the codes, 136 descriptive codes from meaningful units were obtained, which, after merging, resulted in 16 interpretive codes and 3 explanatory codes. "Conceptual re-creation of faithful suffering" emerged within the context of codes such as "breaking routines, being noticed, meaning-making, desirable suffering, chosen suffering, and belief in the future"; "practical declaration of religious beliefs" within codes like "resilience, reward, forgiveness, self-reassessment, spiritual growth, and attaining perfection"; and the explanatory code "reconstruction of the historical experience of sacred suffering" within interpretive codes such as "empathy, participation in suffering, incomparability, and paying homage."