When I was in Iran last month, my translator and I followed a group of Iraqi pilgrims for a couple of days. I particularly got to know Jalil Abbas, 45, from the town of Kufa in southern Iraq, and his family. I traveled with them on an overnight bus from Qom in central Iran to Mashhad, a city on the eastern edge of Iran, to visit the shrine to Imam Reza, a site sacred to Shi'ite Muslims. “Every Shi’ite in Iraq dreams of visiting Imam Reza,” Jalil told me.

(Text by Anne Barnard, photos as credited)