An Iraqi bride stands knee-deep in the freezing Tigris in Baghdad March 21 as a...

An Iraqi bride stands knee-deep in the freezing Tigris in Baghdad March 21 as a barefoot priest baptises her, splashing icy water on her face, hands and chest. Around 100,000 members of Iraq's secretive sect, the Sabaeans, have changed many of its ways but still keeps the core of its centuries-old religious rituals intact. The sect which traces roots back to John the Baptist was founded in Palestine in the first two centuries after Christ's death but members had to flee to Yemen and from there emigrated to Mesopotamia, the land between Tigris and Euphrates rivers.