(RNS) — Each week Religion News Service presents a gallery of photos of religious expression around the world. This week’s photo gallery includes Shiite Muslims commemorating Shab-e-Barat, the funeral of Alexei Navalny and more.
A Kashmiri Shiite Muslim prays at the grave of his relative to mark Shab-e-Barat, on the outskirts of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Sunday, Feb 25, 2024. Muslims visit ancestral graveyards for the salvation of the souls of the departed and also believe that all sins will be forgiven by praying to Allah throughout the Shab-e-Barat night. (AP Photo/ Mukhtar Khan)
Kashmiri Shiite Muslims offer prayers at the graves of their relatives during Shab-e-Barat, on the outskirts of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Sunday, Feb 25, 2024. Muslims visit ancestral graveyards for the salvation of the souls of the departed and also believe that all sins will be forgiven by praying to Allah throughout the Shab-e-Barat night. (AP Photo/ Mukhtar Khan)
A Hindu devotee prays as he takes a dip at the Sangam, the confluence of three rivers — the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati — on Maghi Purnima, or full moon day, at the annual traditional fair in Prayagraj, in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, India,Saturday, Feb.24, 2024. Hundreds of thousands of Hindu pilgrims take dips here hoping to wash away sins during a month-long festival called Magh Mela. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh).
Hindu devotees take a dip at the Sangam, the confluence of three rivers — the Ganges, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati — on Maghi Purnima, or full moon day at the annual traditional fair in Prayagraj, in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, India, Saturday, Feb. 24, 2024. Hundreds of thousands of Hindu pilgrims take dips here hoping to wash away sins during a month-long festival called Magh Mela. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh).
Survivors and relatives of victims pray Monday, Feb. 26, 2024, near the site where a migrant boat capsized in the early morning of Sunday, Feb. 26, 2023, at a short distance from the shore in Steccato di Cutro, in the Italian southern tip, killing at least 94 people. Survivors and family members of the victims gathered at the same time on the day of the disaster for a commemoration on the first anniversary. (AP Photo/Valeria Ferraro)
Tibetan Buddhist leader the Dalai Lama, wearing a yellow ceremonial hat of the Gelug school, performs a ritual during a sermon on the 15th day of the first Tibetan month at the Tsuglakhang temple in Dharamshala, India, Saturday, Feb. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia)
Relatives and friends pay their respects at the coffin of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God Soothe My Sorrows, in Moscow, Russia, Friday, March 1, 2024. (AP Photo)
Police, right, observe from their vehicles as people walk toward the Borisovskoye Cemetery for the funeral ceremony of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, in Moscow, Russia, Friday, March 1, 2024. Under a heavy police presence, thousands of people bade farewell Friday to Navalny after his still-unexplained death two weeks ago in an Arctic penal colony. (AP Photo)
Pastor Soojin Lee delivers a message from the pulpit and is officially inaugurated as the senior pastor of Manmin Central Church, one of Korea’s megachurches, at a ceremony in the grand ballroom of the 63 Building on Saturday, Feb. 24, 2024, in Seoul, South Korea. (Songyeol Yoo/Manmin Central Church via AP Images)
Freed hostage Sharon Alony Cunio, center, carries a poster of her husband, David Cunio, as she marches with other families of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, in Re’im, southern Israel, as they begin their march to Jerusalem calling for the release of other hostages, Feb. 28, 2024. They began the four-day march at the site where hundreds of revelers at the Nova music festival were killed or captured by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)
Friends and relatives of Israeli hostages held in the Gaza Strip by the Hamas militant group attend a rally calling for their release in Tel Aviv, Israel, Feb. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
People carry their offerings to a temple during the Hindu festival of Galungan, the celebration of the triumph of good over evil, at Penglipuran village, Bangli, Bali, Indonesia, on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Firdia Lisnawati)
Archival Photos
Students observing a one-day boycott of New York City schools protest racial imbalance in the system on Feb. 3, 1964. The demonstration was the largest of its kind in the U.S. with 464, 361 students — 44.8% of the total enrollment — participating. Though “freedom songs” and shouting marked their marches, the picketing was orderly and unobstructed. Many of the boycotting students spent the day in “freedom schools” established mainly in local churches. (RNS archive photo. Photo courtesy of the Presbyterian Historical Society.)
Pope Paul VI makes an Ash Wednesday visit to the Basilica of Santa Sabina on the Aventine Hill in Rome, Italy, in 1964. He joined priests and lay Catholics in penitential rites and preached a sermon urging them to see in Lent a season of rich spiritual blessing. His schedule included visits to other churches in Rome during the first five Sundays of the holy season. (RNS archive photo. Photo courtesy of the Presbyterian Historical Society.)