40 Middle East & Africa The EconomistAugust 22nd 2020
L
ast monthSaudi Arabia did something
unprecedented. To slow the spread of
covid-19, it restricted participation in the
haj, the annual pilgrimage to the holy city
of Mecca, which every Muslim is expected
to perform once in their life. Somewhere
between 1,000 and 10,000 people already
resident in the kingdom were allowed to
take part—a tiny fraction of the 2.5m pil-
grims who attended last year from around
the world. It has been well over a century
since the ritual was so disrupted.
Iran is taking a very different approach
to this year’s Muharram ceremonies, which
begin on August 20th and bring millions of
Muslims together to mourn the death of
Imam Hussein, the Prophet Muhammad’s
grandson and favoured martyr of Shia Is-
lam. “Even if we die, we will hold this year’s
Muharram ceremonies splendidly,” says
Saeed Haddadian, a maddah, or cantor, who
chants for Iran’s supreme leader, Grand
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
So vast crowds will file through the
streets, beating their chests, banging huge
drums and re-enacting the passion with
mock swords. They will wail their laments
in black-draped basements and share food
close together. Nothing could spread the
virus faster, but President Hassan Rouhani,
a cleric himself, says the pageant “cannot
be cancelled”. As in past years, his officials
have erected stages festooned with col-
oured flags in streets across the country.
Iran’s doctors are aghast. Officials say
the virus has killed just over 20,000 peo-
ple—the highest death toll in the Middle
East. But a bbc Persian-service investiga-
tion found that the government’s own re-
cords appeared to show that covid-19 had
killed almost 42,000 people by July 20th.
The second wave was certainly deadlier
than the first. And the mass gatherings of
Muharram risk triggering a third. For
months Iranians have been told to forgo
mourning rites for loved ones and hold fu-
nerals online. But now Mr Rouhani says the
entire populace can mourn a man who died
long ago, if masks are worn. “Masks won’t
stop transmission by sweat and tears,” says
an official on Iran’s covid-19 task force.
Mr Rouhani is in thrall to the hardline
clerics who dominate Iran’s politics. They
think the Muharram showpiece may revive
flagging enthusiasm for Islam in public
life. Cantors like Mr Haddadian are reli-
gious pop stars. The president, for his part,
is desperate to preserve a semblance ofnormality in the face of an economy in
steep decline. Another lockdown, he fears,
could provoke mass protests and even
hunger. So doom-mongers are being muz-
zled. When a newspaper reported claims by
a senior Iranian medic that the real death
toll was 20 times the official tally, it was
promptly shut down.
Not all clerics are so rash. Grand Ayatol-
lah Ali al-Sistani, a popular Iraq-based cler-ic, says “alternatives” to the processions
should be found. A Shia body in India urges
believers to mourn online. Even Mr Kha-
menei says the advice of Iran’s covid-19 task
force should be heeded. He knows many
Iranians already blame the clerics for the
virus, since it surfaced in Qom, Iran’s holi-
est city, and was spread by pilgrims going
home. Another wave, he warns, may un-
leash “catastrophe”. 7The clerics argue over how to hold a
month-long Shia festivalIran and covid-19A rite old mess
L
enhuttonwasanaccomplished
cricketer. English fans cherish the
record 364 runs he racked up in a Test
match against Australia in 1938. It would
not be unreasonable to surmise, how-
ever, that this feat is less remarked on in
the Central African Republic (car), a
former French colony with no cricketing
pedigree. So it may seem odd that in 2016
the carissued a set of commemorative
stamps to mark the centenary of Hutton’s
birth—and odder still that French-speak-
ing Niger and Portuguese-speaking
Mozambique did the same (see picture).
The practice, it seems, is not restrict-
ed to bygone English cricketers. Jan
Brueghel the Elder died 395 years ago in
January, a milestone Sierra Leone’s postal
authorities considered significant
enough to warrant a philatelic tribute.
Other African states seem to prefer Ba-
roque music to Flemish art. It is just
possible that the people of Guinea-Bis-
sau might have let the 260th anniversaryofthedeathofJohannSebastianBach
slip by without much fanfare. Fortunate-
ly, their postal service was less remiss.
Stamp issues usually let countries
celebrate national heroes. Yet there is a
rationale for printing stamps of long-
deceased foreigners. You would be hard
pressed to walk out of a post office in
Bangui, the car’s benighted capital, with
a Hutton stamp. But collectors scouring
the internet are willing to pay hand-
somely for such stuff. A set of Hutton
stamps from the carfetches €15.50
($18.50). Niger’s depiction of a besuited
Hutton is sufficiently sought-after to
command a €2 premium. This is a handy
way for African states to boost revenues.
Genuine philatelists get prissy about
this sort of thing. Stamps should be
issued only to meet local demand, they
insist. Yet targeting the collectors’ mar-
ket is not new. Smaller and poorer coun-
tries have been at it for 70 years, notes
Ian Harvey of the Royal Philatelic Society
London. Even Britain’s august Royal Mail
is accused of collector-gouging.
Still, there are signs that the practice
is getting out of hand. In recent years
several African countries have appointed
a Lithuanian-based outfit called Stamp-
erija to design and print their stamps.
Stamperija, philatelists grumble, has
flooded the market with tat. Collectors
calculate that, with the help of Stamp-
erija, Sierra Leone, with a population of
7.6m and a barely functioning postal
service, churned out 1,566 different
stamps last year, compared with 268
released by Britain and 139 by India.
Stamperija’s gaudy designs are not to
everyone’s liking. And producing so
many stamps can lead to mistakes. A set
of Stamperija stamps issued in 2014 for
the carturned out not to picture Marilyn
Monroe, as planned, but a New York drag
artist. Few of Stamperija’s clients seem
bothered, though. “It is willing buyer,
willing seller,” says a postal official in
Sierra Leone. “So what’s the problem?”Waita minuteMrPostman
African stampsNAIROBI
Why African countries issue stamps celebrating dead English cricketersAnother century, another country