Prayers of a Nation Prayers of a nation Water, more than any other commodity, will be the catalyst for wars in the next millennium, predict many scientists. Kamin Mohammadi reports from Iran, a country experiencing increased water stress due to global warming. People stream into Esfahan's Emam Square, men on one side and women, veiled and dressed in black, on the other.
Loudspeakers transmit the rise and fall of Arabic chanting.
In one corner on a small stage stands a mullah, microphone in hand, singing the verses that make the people bend and straighten in rhythm. Nearby, the bazaar is unusually lifeless. The courtyards of the two splendid mosques flanking the square are empty and the doors to the Ali Qapu Palace shut. It is Friday prayers on a scorching day and today, as they have done every week for months, the people of Iran are raising their hands to Allah in a prayer for rain. Their prayers are answered, when in the middle of the summer heat, after months of drought, the precious rains begin to fall.