NEW DELHI: As she prepares to fly to Saudi Arabia, Gulzar Begum will soon see her dream of two decades come true: She will embark on the spiritual journey she has been saving for by teaching the Qur’an.
The 74-year-old from the Dakshinpuri area of South Delhi will be among thousands of Indian female pilgrims who next month will perform the Hajj on their own, without a mahram, or male guardian.
“I cannot express my feelings and joy,” Begum told Arab News. “For a long time, I have been saving money for the Hajj. I am not a rich woman. I don’t have a husband, and my two sons are not rich enough to go with me.”
She and other women pilgrims traveling to Saudi Arabia alone can do so now, after the Kingdom’s decision last year to lift a rule that required women to be accompanied by a mahram. Those who had no such companion could only travel in large groups of other women.
Following the new rule, India has tweaked its Hajj policy and over 4,300 pilgrims in the Ladies Without Mahram category will, according to the Ministry of Minority Affairs, mark the country’s “largest-ever contingent of women proceeding on Hajj alone without a male (family) member.”
Last year, the figure was 2,000. With over 200 million Indians professing Islam, Hindu-majority India has the world’s largest Muslim-minority population. Under the 2023 Hajj quota, 175,000 of them are traveling to Saudi Arabia for the pilgrimage, which is one of the five pillars of Islam.
Special flights for pilgrims started earlier this week.
Munawari Begum, the vice president of the Haj Committee of India, just returned from the Kingdom after making all the necessary arrangements for female pilgrims.
“Hajj this year is special,” she told Arab News. “We have made special arrangements for the stay of women in Saudi Arabia…Their attendants will also be women.”
Many Muslim women have welcomed changes in India’s Hajj policy since its announcement in February. Kausar Jahan, chairwoman of the Delhi Haj Committee, told Arab News it was an “attempt to empower women.”
She said: “It is inducing not only economic independence of women but also self-reliance.
“There were many women who earlier wanted to go for Hajj alone, but the rule was strict, and they could not go. Now, women have their own independence.”
