they do this to commemorate the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, grandson of Muhammad.... (allah milju alli gal kithon agyi vich)
its their religion just try to understand
On the 10th day of muharram in year 61 Hijri, the army of 40,000 soldiers sent by the order of Yazid, the Islamic Khalif of the time, attacked Imam Hussein (AS), the grandson of the prophet of Islam, and slaughtered him and his family in Karbala
The Arabic term
matam refers in general to any act or gesture of mourning; in Shia Islam the term designates acts of lamentation for the martyrs of Karbala. Many of the male and female participants congregate in public for ceremonial chest beating (
matam) as a display of their devotion to Imam Husayn and in remembrance of his suffering.
[2] In some Shi'a societies, such as those in Bahrain, Pakistan, India, Afghanistan and Iraq, some male participants incorporate knives or razors swung upon chains into their matam. There are two basic forms of matam:
- matam using one's hands only, that is, sineh-zani or breast-beating
- matam with implements like chains, knives, swords and blades, that is, zanjeer-zani, qama-zani, etc.
Matam in South Asia is the most significant and sensitive Shia identity marker.
Expressions of grief such as sine-zani (beating the chest), zangir-zani (beating oneself with chains), and tage-zani or Qama Zani also known as Tatbeer (hitting oneself with swords or knives) emerged as common features of the proliferating mourning-processions (dasta-gardani).