Syed Ali Nadeem Rezavi
Every year, as the month of Muharram arrives, millions of people across the world turn their thoughts towards Karbala, where one of the most profound moral dramas in human history unfolded. The memory of Imam Husain ibn Ali, the beloved grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, and his companions who sacrificed their lives on the tenth of Muharram in 61 AH (680 CE), continues to inspire people of all backgrounds. Their stand against tyranny, injustice, and the abuse of power transformed Karbala from a historical event into an eternal symbol of resistance and moral courage.
Yet the story of Karbala is often told primarily through the heroism of its men. We remember Husain, Abbas, Ali Akbar, Qasim ibn Hasan, Habib ibn Muzahir, Zuhair ibn Qain, Muslim ibn Awsaja, John the Ethiopian, and the other martyrs who gave their lives in defence of truth. Their sacrifice deserves every tribute that history has bestowed upon them. However, to focus solely on the men of Karbala is to overlook a vital dimension of the tragedy and its enduring legacy.
Karbala was not merely a battlefield. It was a revolution of conscience. Like all great revolutions, it required not only those who were willing to die for a cause but also those who were willing to live for it after unimaginable loss. The women of Karbala were not passive spectators who happened to accompany Husain. It is only recently that role is now being emphasised as central to the mission of Husain. Here I am going to summarise their role and significance.
The women were essential participants in the mission of Husain. Their courage, endurance, leadership, eloquence, and steadfast faith ensured that the sacrifice of Ashura would not vanish into the sands of history. Indeed, one may confidently argue that without the women of Karbala, there would be no Karbala as we know it today.
One of the first questions that arises is why Imam Husain chose to take the women and children of his household on a journey whose dangers he fully understood. Had his purpose been merely political or military, their presence would have been unnecessary and even risky. Yet Husain deliberately chose to bring his sisters, wives, daughters, nieces, and the families of his companions. Their presence reveals the true nature of his movement. Husain knew that he and his supporters would likely be martyred. He also knew that the struggle would not end with their deaths. The women would become the witnesses of Karbala. They would preserve its memory, expose the crimes of the Umayyad regime, and communicate its message to future generations. Ashura was only the first chapter of the revolution. The second chapter would be written by the women.
The central figure among them was undoubtedly Janāb e Zainab bint Ali, the daughter of Imam Ali and Janāb e Fatima, and the granddaughter of the Prophet Muhammad. Zainab possessed extraordinary qualities of character. She combined intellectual brilliance with spiritual depth, courage with dignity, and eloquence with unwavering faith. Throughout her life she had witnessed many trials, but nothing could compare with the horrors she endured at Karbala. She watched one after another as the men of her family entered the battlefield and embraced martyrdom. She saw her nephews and cousins fall. She witnessed the death of Qasim ibn Hasan, the young son of Imam Hasan, who longed for martyrdom beside his uncle. She saw Ali Akbar, whose appearance and character most closely resembled the Prophet, cut down in the prime of his youth. She witnessed the martyrdom of Abbas ibn Ali, the standard-bearer of Karbala, whose loyalty and devotion have become legendary. Finally, she saw her own brother, Husain, surrounded by enemies and martyred after enduring thirst, exhaustion, and isolation.
Yet the true greatness of Zainab emerged after the martyrdom of Husain. When the battle ended, the tents were looted and set ablaze. The surviving women and children were left frightened, exhausted, and vulnerable. The men who had protected them were gone. At this moment of complete devastation, Zainab became the leader of the survivors. She gathered the terrified children. She comforted the bereaved women. She protected the sick Imam Ali ibn Husain Zayn al-Abidin, whose illness had prevented him from fighting but whose survival was essential for the continuation of the Prophet’s family. When soldiers threatened his life, Zainab reportedly shielded him with her own body and declared that they would have to kill her before harming him. The courage she displayed after Ashura was every bit as remarkable as the courage shown by the martyrs on the battlefield. The men had attained the honour of martyrdom. Zainab and the other women had to endure the pain of survival. It is remarkable to note that before the martyrdom of Husain, she remains in the shadows, only to emerge as a beacon, a leader after his massacre, protecting not only the household, the ailing Imām Zainul Abedīn, but also spreading the message of Imām Husain. She acted as the second Husain, and no tear fell from eyes then on, which were now focused on the mission.
The captives were taken first to Kufa and later to Damascus. The Umayyad authorities intended to present them as defeated rebels and thereby legitimise the massacre. Instead, Zainab transformed captivity into resistance. In Kufa she addressed the crowds who had gathered to witness the arrival of the prisoners. Many wept when they realised that these captives were the family of the Prophet. Zainab condemned the people for their betrayal of Husain after inviting him to their city. Her speech exposed their hypocrisy and forced them to confront their own responsibility for the tragedy. Through her words, sorrow was transformed into moral accountability.
Her most famous confrontation occurred in the court of Yazid in Damascus. Yazid believed that he had achieved a complete victory. The heads of the martyrs had been displayed before him. The surviving members of the Prophet’s family stood before his court as prisoners. The occasion was intended to celebrate the triumph of state power over resistance. Instead, Zainab transformed the court into a tribunal of justice. Standing before the ruler of the Muslim empire, surrounded by his officials and supporters, she delivered one of the most powerful speeches in Islamic history. Fearless and composed, she challenged Yazid’s claims to legitimacy and condemned his treatment of the Prophet’s family. She reminded him that worldly power is temporary and that ultimate judgement belongs to God. Most significantly, she declared that despite all his efforts, he would never succeed in erasing the memory of Husain and his companions. He might kill them, display their heads, imprison their families, and command vast armies, but he could not extinguish the truth for which they had died. History has vindicated her words. More than thirteen centuries later, the names of Husain and Zainab continue to inspire millions, while Yazid’s name remains synonymous with oppression and injustice.
After release from prison, she was the first to organise meetings where she would narrate to those present not only the travails of Karbala, but the message for which it all happened.
Zainab thus became the first and greatest interpreter and reporter of Karbala. She transformed a military defeat into a moral victory. Through her speeches, actions, and steadfastness, she ensured that the message of Husain reached far beyond the battlefield. For this reason many scholars have observed that Karbala consisted of two interconnected struggles. The first was fought by Husain with the sword. The second was fought by Zainab with words. Both were necessary for the success of the revolution. If Husain gave Karbala its blood, Zainab gave it its voice. She was, in the truest sense, the real ambassador of Husain, not merely in the court of Yazid but throughout the journey of captivity, carrying his message to every town and every gathering she encountered. Her role in percolating the message of Husain to the world cannot be overstated; she ensured that the revolution would not be confined to a single day or a single place but would resonate across centuries and continents. In her seminal work Batalat Karbala (The Heroine of Karbala), the Egyptian scholar A’isha Abd al-Rahman (Bint al-Shati) presents Zainab as a model of piety, knowledge, and strength, tracing her life from childhood to her final days and emphasising her role as a Qur’anic scholar and teacher in Medina, long before the tragedy unfolded. Abd al-Rahman also highlights the power of Zainab’s orations in Kufa and Damascus, arguing that her eloquence was not merely instinctive but the product of deep learning and spiritual preparation. The Pakistani scholar Muhammad Hasanayn al-Sabiqi, in his work Marqad al-Aqilah Zaynab (The Shrine of the Noble Zainab), builds upon these earlier hagiographies to establish the centrality of Zainab in Shi`a history, arguing for her equal standing with her brothers and her complete preparedness for the trials she would endure. This view is reinforced by contemporary scholars such as Tahera Qutbuddin, who in her analysis of the orations of Zainab and Umm Kulthum demonstrates how these speeches functioned as masterpieces of rhetorical resistance, transforming the court of Yazid from a place of triumph into a space of moral reckoning.
Alongside Zainab stood Umm Kulthum, another daughter of Ali and Fatima. Though less frequently discussed, her contribution was also significant. Her speeches in Kufa reinforced the message of Karbala and condemned those who had abandoned Husain. Through her courage and eloquence she helped ensure that the tragedy would be remembered not merely as an episode of suffering but as a lesson in responsibility and moral choice. She stood shoulder to shoulder with her sister, a pillar of strength in the darkest of hours. Qutbuddin’s work has drawn particular attention to the rhetorical power of both sisters’ speeches, noting how their words functioned as a form of non-violent resistance that complemented the physical sacrifice of the martyrs.
The younger women and children of Karbala likewise played a crucial role in shaping its memory. Among them, Sakina, the beloved daughter of Husain, occupies a unique place in the hearts of believers. If Qasim ibn Hasan symbolises youthful sacrifice among the men of Karbala, Sakina symbolises youthful endurance among its women. The image of the thirsty child searching for her father after his martyrdom has become one of the most moving symbols of Ashura. Yet Sakina represents more than sorrow. Through her suffering she became a witness to oppression. Her experiences revealed the cruelty of the regime more effectively than any political argument. The suffering of children stripped away every claim to legitimacy that Yazid’s supporters might have advanced. An army can justify a battle. It cannot justify the suffering of innocent children. Sakina as the child at Karbala and Sakina as the prisoner embody the full arc of this tragedy, from innocence to endurance. In one version of history, however, she is depicted as an accomplished, articulate scholar later in life, suggesting that perhaps another daughter of Husain survived and grew to carry forward his legacy of learning and piety. This tradition reminds us that the women of Karbala were not merely victims; they were also bearers of knowledge and wisdom. Contemporary scholars such as Shemeem Burney Abbas have explored this figure in works like Sakineh, the Narrator of Karbala, which provides an ethnographic account of how Sakina’s story continues to animate women’s mourning rituals, particularly in South Asia, where her suffering is recounted with profound emotional resonance.
Equally significant was Rubab, the wife of Imam Husain and the mother of Sakina and Ali Asghar. Rubab witnessed the martyrdom of her husband and the killing of her infant son, Ali Asghar, who was struck by an arrow while in his father’s arms. Few experiences in human history can equal such pain. Yet Rubab remained steadfast. Her mourning became an act of remembrance and resistance. She refused to allow the tragedy to be forgotten and devoted herself to preserving the memory of Husain. In doing so, she demonstrated that grief itself can become a form of protest against injustice.
Another woman of exceptional stature was Umm al-Farwa, the mother of Imam Zain al-Abidin. Her noble lineage and her role in nurturing the future Imam ensured that the prophetic legacy continued through the most difficult of times. Her patience and fortitude in the face of unimaginable loss provided a foundation upon which the surviving family could rebuild. Likewise, Fizza, the devoted servant of Fatima Zahra and companion of the household, stood by the women of Karbala with unwavering loyalty. Her presence reminds us that the revolution of Husain was not confined to bloodlines but embraced all who shared his commitment to truth and justice.
The mothers of Karbala deserve equal recognition. Every martyr who fell on Ashura had first been nurtured by a mother who instilled in him the values of faith, courage, and loyalty. The mother of Wahab ibn Abdullah Kalbi is among the most celebrated examples. Rather than urging her son to save himself, she encouraged him to stand beside Husain. Her commitment illustrates the fact that the spirit of Karbala extended beyond individual heroes to entire families united by principle. Similarly, the wives of Husain’s companions shared in the sacrifices of Ashura. The wife of Wahab remained steadfast despite witnessing the martyrdom of her husband. The families of companions such as John the Ethiopian endured loss and suffering alongside the Prophet’s family. Their presence demonstrates that Karbala united people from different ethnic, social, and cultural backgrounds around a common commitment to justice and truth.
Perhaps the greatest contribution of the women of Karbala was their role in preserving memory. They were the first mourners of Husain. They were the first narrators of Ashura. They were the first to recount the sufferings of the martyrs and explain the significance of their sacrifice. In a very real sense, the tradition of majlis and remembrance begins with them. Every gathering held in memory of Husain today continues a practice first established by Zainab, Umm Kulthum, Rubab, Umm al-Farwa, Sakina, Fizza, and the surviving women of the Prophet’s household. Through their testimony and mourning, the story of Karbala was preserved and transmitted across generations. The preservation of Karbala was not achieved by rulers, armies, or institutions. It was achieved by women who refused to allow truth to be forgotten. The contemporary scholarship collected in the edited volume The Women of Karbala: Ritual Performance and Symbolic Discourses in Modern Shii Islam (University of Texas Press, 2005) explores this legacy in depth, examining how women’s roles in Karbala rituals have evolved across Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, India, Pakistan, and the United States. Within this volume, Syed Akbar Hyder’s chapter Sayyedeh Zaynab: The Conqueror of Damascus and Beyond analyses Zainab’s transformation into a powerful symbol of resistance, while Lara Z. Deeb’s From Mourning to Activism: Sayyedeh Zaynab, Lebanese Shii Women, and the Transformation of Ashura explores how her example has inspired contemporary social and political activism. These modern studies confirm what the earliest historians, including al-Tabari in his Tarikh al-Rusul wa al-Muluk and Ibn Sad in his biographical compilations, first documented: that the women of Karbala were not passive victims but active agents in shaping the historical and theological significance of the tragedy. Al-Tabari, drawing upon the earlier work of Abu Mikhnaf, provides one of the most comprehensive classical narratives of the events, including the extended role of Zainab in the aftermath, while Ibn Sad and al-Baladhuri offer crucial genealogical details that confirm the names and relationships of the women who survived.
The history of Karbala therefore belongs as much to its women as to its men. Abbas embodied loyalty, but so did Zainab. Qasim embraced martyrdom, but Sakina embraced suffering with equal courage. Husain resisted oppression through sacrifice, while Zainab resisted it through testimony. The martyrs demonstrated how to die for truth. The women demonstrated how to live for truth after catastrophe. Their contributions were different, but they were not lesser. The late Iranian intellectual Ali Shariati, whose writings on Karbala have profoundly influenced modern understandings of the tragedy, universalised Zainab’s example, portraying her as a paradigm of political struggle accessible to all, transcending her gender. In his influential work Red Shiism vs. Black Shiism and other writings, Shariati presents Zainab as the archetype of active, engaged faith. Similarly, the scholar Ali Rahnema has emphasised that Zainab’s leadership in the aftermath of Ashura represents a form of resistance that is no less heroic than the battlefield sacrifice of her brother, framing her role as essential to the revolution’s enduring success.
It is crucial, however, to move beyond viewing the women of Karbala merely as objects of sympathy or figures to be pitied for their suffering. To reduce them to this role is to misunderstand their true significance entirely. They were not weak individuals upon whom we are invited to weep; they were powerful, resolute, and formidable women who set before us examples of loyalty, courage, and unwavering principle that are worthy of emulation in our own lives. Zainab was not a passive victim awaiting rescue; she was a leader, an orator, and a strategist. Sakina was not merely a weeping child; she was a witness whose endurance exposed the moral bankruptcy of tyranny. Rubab was not simply a grieving widow; she was a guardian of memory whose steadfastness ensured that the sacrifice of her husband would never be forgotten. These women do not invite our pity; they demand our respect and our resolve. They challenge us to ask whether we possess the same courage, the same loyalty, and the same commitment to truth that they displayed in the most trying circumstances imaginable. Their example is not confined to the past; it is a living call to conscience that speaks directly to the challenges of our own time. The women of Karbala demonstrate that true strength is revealed not in the absence of suffering but in the refusal to be defeated by it. They show us that loyalty to principle, devotion to justice, and unwavering faith are not abstract ideals but practical virtues that can transform the world.
The women of Karbala were the indispensable pillars upon which Husain’s revolution ultimately rested. Without them, the tragedy might have been remembered only as a lost battle. Because of them, it became one of humanity’s greatest moral lessons. If the martyrs won immortality through their blood, the women ensured that this immortality would be known to the world. If Husain died for the truth, Zainab ensured that the truth of Husain would never die.
For this reason the women of Karbala must be remembered not merely as survivors of a tragedy but as architects of its enduring legacy. Their courage, faith, endurance, and leadership transformed a battlefield into a universal symbol of resistance against tyranny and injustice. Without the women of Karbala, there would have been no living memory of Ashura. Without Zainab, there would have been no enduring voice of Husain’s revolution. And without their sacrifice, the message of Karbala would never have reached the hearts of humanity.
Sources and Further Reading
Primary Historical Sources
Al-Tabari, Tarikh al-Rusul wa al-Muluk (History of Prophets and Kings), 10th century CE. Draws upon the earlier work of Abu Mikhnaf, one of the first historians to document the martyrdom of Husayn.
Ibn Sa`d (d. 845 CE), Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kabir, provides crucial biographical and genealogical details about the Prophet’s family.
Al-Baladhuri (d. 892 CE), Ansab al-Ashraf, offers genealogical information confirming the names and relationships of the women who survived Karbala.
Key Secondary Works
A’isha Abd al-Rahman (Bint al-Shati), Batalat Karbala (The Heroine of Karbala). Presents Zainab as a model of piety, knowledge, and strength, emphasising her role as a Qur’anic scholar and the power of her orations.
Muhammad Hasanayn al-Sabiqi, Marqad al-Aqilah Zaynab (The Shrine of the Noble Zainab). Establishes the centrality of Zainab in Shia history and argues for her equal standing with her brothers.
The Women of Karbala: Ritual Performance and Symbolic Discourses in Modern Shi`i Islam (University of Texas Press, 2005). Edited collection exploring women’s roles in Karbala rituals across Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, India, Pakistan, and the United States. Includes:
· Syed Akbar Hyder, ‘Sayyedeh Zaynab: The Conqueror of Damascus and Beyond’
· Shemeem Burney Abbas, ‘Sakineh, the Narrator of Karbala’
· Lara Z. Deeb, ‘From Mourning to Activism: Sayyedeh Zaynab, Lebanese Shi`i Women, and the Transformation of Ashura’
Tahera Qutbuddin, Arabic Oration: Art and Function, and her scholarly articles on the orations of Zainab and Umm Kulthum, which analyse these speeches as masterpieces of rhetorical resistance.
Ali Shariati, Red Shiism vs. Black Shi`ism and other writings on Karbala. Universalises Zainab’s example as a paradigm of political struggle accessible to all, transcending her gender.
Ali Rahnema, An Islamic Utopian: A Political Biography of Ali Shariati emphasises Zainab’s leadership in the aftermath of Ashura as a form of resistance no less heroic than battlefield sacrifice.
Yasmin Rahimi, Traces of Zaynab in Shi’i Memory, Martyrdom, and Resistance (2025). Rahimi argues that Zainab’s survival, witnessing, and public testimony reveal an alternative mode of resistance that complements and even transcends the paradigm of physical martyrdom.
Amina Inloes in her work on the Karbala narrative, (especially The Women Question in Islamic Studies) stresses that the enduring power of Karbala owes much to the preservation and transmission of the event by Zainab and the surviving members of the Prophet’s family.
Ibrahim Amini, The Victory of Truth: The Life of Zaynab bint Ali. It recounts the life and legacy of Zaynab bint Ali, focusing on her moral strength, eloquence, and role in preserving the message of Karbala. The work is widely read in Shia Islamic circles for its spiritual and historical insights. The work contributes significantly to contemporary understandings of Zaynab’s enduring symbolism as “the Messenger of Karbala,” a figure of truth and resilience in Shia thought.
ASHA: Blast From The Past 