Photos of the Week

This week’s gallery includes the Hindu Ganesh Chaturthi festival, Shiite commemorations of Ashura, and more.

Afghan Shiites flagellate themselves with chains and blades to mark Ashura, outside the Abul Fazel Shrine in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Sept. 10, 2019. Ashoura falls on the 10th day of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar, when Shiites mark the death of Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, at the Battle of Karbala in present-day Iraq in the 7th century. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

(RNS) — Each week Religion News Service presents a gallery of photos of religious expression around the world. This week’s gallery includes the Hindu Ganesh Chaturthi festival, Shiite commemorations of Ashura, and more.

Afghan Shiites flagellate themselves with chains and blades to mark Ashura, outside the Abul Fazel Shrine in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Sept. 10, 2019. Ashura falls on the 10th day of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar, when Shiites mark the death of Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, at the Battle of Karbala, in present-day Iraq, in the 7th century. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)


Faithful hold statues of the Virgin Mary as they attend Pope Francis’ weekly general audience, at the Vatican, on Sept. 11, 2019. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Orthodox Christians and clergy take part in a procession along Nevsky Prospect in St.Petersburg, Russia, to mark the anniversary of the Alexander Nevsky Monastery on Sept. 12, 2019. Russian Orthodox faithful commemorate the date of September 12, 1724, when Russian Tsar Peter The Great transferred the relics of prince Alexander Nevsky from the town of Vladimir to St. Petersburg, the new capital of Russia at that time. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)

Pastor Jeremiah Saunders stands among the ruins of his church that was destroyed by Hurricane Dorian, in High Rock, Grand Bahama, Bahamas, on Sept. 11, 2019. “I spoke to the water: ‘Peace, be still.’ It never listened,” Saunders said with a wide smile and then grew serious as he focused on the task that tens of thousands of Bahamians now face on two islands devastated by the Category 5 storm: the clean-up. (AP Photo / Ramon Espinosa)

Devotees participate in a procession with a large statue of elephant-headed Hindu god Ganesh in Mumbai, India, on Sept. 12, 2019. Every year millions of devout Hindus immerse Ganesh statues into oceans and rivers in the ten-day long Ganesh Chaturthi festival that celebrates the birth of Ganesh. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

An Indian Muslim man sells blades used by Shiite Muslims to flagellate themselves to mark Ashura in Mumbai, India, on Sept. 10, 2019. Ashura falls on the 10th day of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar, when Shiites mark the death of Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, at the Battle of Karbala in present-day Iraq in the 7th century. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)

A view of the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan on Sept. 9, 2019. New official data obtained by The Associated Press shows a spike in Jewish settlement construction in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem since President Trump took office in 2017, along with strong evidence of decades of systematic discrimination illustrated by a huge gap in the number of construction permits granted to Jewish and Palestinian residents. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

People carry a statue of the Virgin of Charity, or Our Lady of El Cobre, on her feast day in Havana, Cuba, on Sept. 8, 2019. Cuba’s patron saint is important to both observant Catholics and followers of Afro-Cuban Santeria traditions in Cuba. (AP Photo/Ismael Francisco)


People at a Mass celebrated by Pope Francis at the Monument Mary Queen of Peace, in Port Louis, Mauritius, on Sept. 9, 2019. Francis arrived in the Indian Ocean nation of Mauritius to celebrate its diversity, encourage its ethical development and honor a 19th century French missionary who ministered to freed slaves. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

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