MUMBAI: Indian women over the age of 45 and traveling in groups of four will be able to go for the Islamic Hajj pilgrimage without a male guardian next year, if the government adopts proposed reforms.
Women meeting these criteria will no longer have to be accompanied by a mahram, or close male relative, such as a father, husband, brother or son, a government-appointment panel recommended in the country’s first Hajj policy review.
“The mahram rule was there from the very beginning for women — in case they face any difficulty while traveling, it can be taken care of,” said Maqsood Ahmed Khan of the Hajj Committee of India, a government body which organizes the pilgrimages.
“This (dropping of male kin) is an important recommendation, the chief executive told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Nearly half of an estimated 170,000 pilgrims who went for the annual religious celebration in Saudi Arabia from India this year were women, officials said.
The panel of bureaucrats and intellectuals was appointed by the ministry of minority affairs to review India’s Hajj policy for the first time.
Officials from the ministry, which will decide whether to adopt the recommendations, were not available for comment.
The policy would cover the next five years from 2018 and is in line with Saudi Arabia’s Hajj requirements.
Women’s rights campaigners welcomed the proposal but said it did not go far enough.
“Muslim women are traveling across the world independently,” said Noorjehan Safia Niaz, founder of Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, which campaigns for Muslim women’s rights and won a ban on an instant divorce law in August..
“While this is a good decision, the restrictions on age and group size should go.”
If the new rule is implemented, solo women will no longer have to pay private tour operators to provide them with a mahram for a fee of 10,000 Indian rupees ($153.29), campaigners said.
India may allow female Hajj pilgrims to travel without male guardian
India may allow female Hajj pilgrims to travel without male guardian
Czech Prime Minister Babiš faces confidence vote as government shifts Ukraine policy
- “I’d like to make it clear that the Czech Republic and Czech citizens will be first for our government,” Babiš said
- Babiš has rejected any financial aid for Ukraine and guarantees for EU loans
PRAGUE: The Czech Republic’s new government led by populist Prime Minister Andrej Babiš was set to face a mandatory confidence vote in Parliament over its agenda aimed at steering the country away from supporting Ukraine and rejecting some key European Union policies.
The debate in the 200-seat lower house of Parliament, where the coalition has a majority of 108 seats, began Tuesday. Every new administration must win the vote to govern.
Babiš, previously prime minister in two governments from 2017-2021, and his ANO, or YES, movement, won big in the country’s October election and formed a majority coalition with two small political groups, the Freedom and Direct Democracy anti-migrant party and the right-wing Motorists for Themselves.
The parties, which share admiration for US President Donald Trump, created a 16-member Cabinet.
“I’d like to make it clear that the Czech Republic and Czech citizens will be first for our government,” Babiš said in his speech in the lower house.
The political comeback by Babiš and his new alliance with two small government newcomers are expected to significantly redefine the nation’s foreign and domestic policies.
Unlike the previous pro-Western government, Babiš has rejected any financial aid for Ukraine and guarantees for EU loans to the country fighting the Russian invasion, joining the ranks of Viktor Orbán of Hungary and Robert Fico of Slovakia.
But his government would not abandon a Czech initiative that managed to acquire some 1.8 million much-needed artillery shells for Ukraine only last year on markets outside the EU on condition the Czechs would only administer it but would not contribute money.
The Freedom party sees no future for the Czechs in the EU and NATO, and wants to expel most of 380,000 Ukrainian refugees in the country.
The Motorists, who are in charge of the environment and foreign ministries, rejected the EU Green Deal and proposed revivals of the coal industry.
