Baghdad: The Iraqi authorities today banned women from visiting a Baghdad district which is home to the city's most famous Shiite tomb after a woman suicide bomber killed 35 people there during the weekend.

"In order to organise the entry of pilgrims to Kadhimiyah and to guarantee their movement in the town, the decision has been taken to permit entry to Kadhimiyah only to men and to male pilgrims," the centre in charge of security operations in Baghdad said in a statement.

The ban applies today and tomorrow for the culmination of the Ashura ceremonies commemorating the martyrdom in 680 AD of the Imam Hussein, grandson of the prophet Mohammed.

It covers the area surrounding the tomb of Musa al-Khadim, the seventh Shiite imam, one of the sites most revered by Shiites. It is situated in a busy market district.

The restrictions were applied after a woman suicide bomber wearing a belt of explosives blew herself up Sunday at the security gate at the entry to the tomb, killing 35,many of them Iranian pilgrims, and injuring 80.

Among those hit by the ban was Zahra Mamoud, who had made the trip to the tomb with her husband and children.

"I don't know what to do," she said. "Go home or wait for them to perhaps let me through?"

Only women who can prove they live in the district are allowed through the checkpoints.

Since the start of the month of Muharram, hundreds of thousands of people have embarked on pilgrimages to holy shrines in Iraq, mainly in the central cities of Karbala and Najaf, south of Baghdad.

Source : PTI