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Success Stories

Lead By Example

Our team member, Zaynab Marchant, interviewed brother Shuja Rizvi, who is a prominent laminate reciter, social worker, and pilgrimage group leader, from Karachi, Pakistan. We are honored to have him as a passionate volunteer at The Green Pilgrim.

Q1: As a ziarat group leader, why did you feel that it is important to have an eco-friendly pilgrimage? 

Shuja Rizvi: The awareness video touched my heart, and made me ask, ‘What is my responsibility?’. When you go to Imam Hussain (as) you must purify your heart and pledge to improve yourself. If you return without any self-improvement, you wasted your time. Other people are talking about a plastic-free lifestyle, but this is specifically about Karbala. What do we do when we go to Karbala? This is a crucial matter. 

Q2: How did you start your journey towards being a green pilgrim and a guide?

Shuja Rizvi: In my opinion, a great man is someone who not only grows himself but tries to nurture others too. Therefore, I decided that I will talk about this to the extent that I can, and I will try my best to eliminate plastic use reduced, and use alternates. 

Q3: Do you think removing plastic from our pilgrimage is doable?

Shuja Rizvi: The issue is that there is so much plastic in Iraq, that you may be able to control yourself and your group, but how would you reduce the plastic consumption by locals? However, it’s wrong to think that if we can’t change others, we shouldn’t change ourselves either. We need to fulfill our responsibility. We must at least try, Allah may make it successful. We shouldn’t give up. 

Q4: What has your overall experience been? Was it easy to convince people? 

Shuja Rizvi: Someone said to Imam Jafar (as), “I’m going for tableegh, please give me some advice.” Imam replied, “Try so that you don’t have to say anything.” More than preaching, the main thing is to apply it yourself. Although, we try to educate people and provide alternates, mostly they forget to carry the bottles we give them. Collectively we need to make an effort to cut plastic use out of our lives. This is because it is extremely harmful, and it doesn’t disappear– it takes some 16 generations to decompose. The main thing, therefore, is to lead by action. 

” The Prophet (s) ‘s task was not easy to make-believe in a God that is not visible. He achieved this by leading by example and becoming Sadiq and Ameen by being trustworthy for 40 years, after which people believed him. ” – Shuja Rizvi

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Success Stories

A Woman Who Made a Difference

Ideologies take some time to root in people’s minds, and even more, time to become a culture. Zaheen Fatima, 39, a mother and a group leader from Karachi, is making the culture of eco-friendly pilgrimage common. As a woman group leader, she has been organizing private pilgrimage groups for Iraq, since 2017. Presently, her group usually consists of 100 pilgrims.

‘ When I watched that viral video that talked about the plastic threat in Karbala, I immediately decided to do something about it. I used the funds to offer reusable cutlery and bottles for all my pilgrims. Which they carried. I did to send blessings to my parent’s souls.’, shares Zaheen Fatima.

Initially, she tried to raise funds for practicing the green pilgrimage concept, and everyone shunned the idea away as being ‘the impossible whims of a woman.’ Zaheen, however, continued to tirelessly work while ignoring the rejection. She visited wholesale markets, searching for plastic alternates online, and learning about eco-friendly travel ideas on the internet. 

She did not stop until she had acquired for every person on the caravan, a cup, plate, and spoons which could be washed and reused to reduce the use of plastic. And, due to limited funds, she, with the help of her mother, cut and sewed green scarves to be distributed amongst her caravan as a substitute for tags or plastic bags, scarves which could be reused and were multipurpose as they made all her pilgrims stand out in the crowd.  Refillable bottles too were provided to all the pilgrims, all these changes were made because as Zaheen says,

 ‘One should have a preserving attitude, rather than a disposing one, for, with every use of a pollutant, you are disposing away Karbala as well, and while there may be substitutes to plastic, there is no substitute for Haram-e-Imam Hussein,’ adds Zaheen.


She also believes that Arbaeen is a perfect opportunity to highlight this cause. 

 ‘Mashi-e-Arbaeen is the best time for planning for the reappearance of imam-e-Zamana,’ for the imam will bring a system of justice, both amongst the people and the environment, and since Arbaeen, with its global magnetism attracts everyone, irrespective of social backgrounds and is the best time to form the foundation of for the revolution of imam Mehdi, by following the teachings of the Ahlulbait (a), which greatly include the care of our eco-system,’, she concludes.

Even if one person is determined to affect change, they succeed, the example being ‘green pilgrims’ itself that works on the idea of one woman who set out to change the world, her ideology inspiring many, Zaheen Fatima being one of them, and you, dear reader if you have reached this far, become a part of this revolution as well, your Imam(ATF) once again calls for you, this time to form a resolution to heed the plea of our environment.