Treatment of female Nigerian pilgrims embarrasses Saudis at the start of hajj (OP)
Salaam
If true this is very disappointing
Nigerian women have been subjected to the very dishonour that a male guardian is allegedly required to protect them against
For the past five days, 1,000 female Nigerian pilgrims have been detained at an airport and various detention facilities in Saudi Arabia. They arrived in the country to conduct the annual pilgrimage, the hajj, a duty that every Muslim must fulfil once in their lifetime if they can afford to do so. Despite the fact that they had valid hajj visas, Saudi authorities would not allow them into the country as they were unaccompanied by male guardians (mahrams). While about 200 have already been sent back, the rest remain, awaiting a resolution of the matter between the Nigerian and Saudi governments.
The issue has precipitated a diplomatic spat between the two countries. A spokesman for the Nigerian vice-presidential office said he had received reports that the women were being subjected to "dehumanising treatment", being deprived of food and forced to sleep on cold floors. Paradoxically, and hypocritically, the women are being subjected to the very dishonour that a male guardian is allegedly required to protect them against.
Saudi Arabia prides itself on being "the custodian of the two holy mosques". Every year, the country hosts up to 3 million pilgrims as they perform the holy rite. It is a political and logistical feat, and Saudi Arabia has invested heavily in hajj infrastructure. However, the hajj is blighted with practical and logistical failures. And female pilgrims are often disproportionately affected, as they fall foul of arbitrary legal innovations and immigration disarray.
While the mahram requirement is notoriously well known, its application has been erratic. Female members of my family were sent back for not having a mahram as far back as the 1980s, but since then it has been common for women to be allowed to travel in convoys, sponsored by their diplomatic missions or equivalent authority. It seems that Saudis themselves admit that this is a new enforcement of the letter of the law: the Saudi ambassador in Abuja said that they had been "flexible in the past", but had decided to apply the law this time. To add to the humiliation, the implication that these women are not complying with religious law (of which Saudis believe their interpretation is the only arbiter) is insulting in the extreme: to want to complete the hajj at all (not to mention incurring the significant costs and physical hardship) would suggest a certain level of committed religious observance. In addition, the mahram rule is applied in its current extreme form only in Saudi Arabia. It is by no means a universal Islamic stipulation that other Muslims with different religious cultures would adopt, especially on a hajj trip lasting three days.
It is not the first time that female pilgrims have fallen victim to Saudi Arabia's random legislation. Last year, based on some internalised cultural stereotype, Saudis banned Moroccan women of a certain age from the umrah, a shorter pilgrimage, even if they were accompanied by mahrams, because of a belief that they were of loose morals and would somehow slip through the (very tight noose) of the umrah visa and entice Saudi men into underground prostitution rings.
Both incidents reek of national and racial discrimination. Nigerian officials claim that only Nigerian women were screened and subjected to such treatment. Unfortunately, in a region where there is sensitivity about the treatment of black Muslims – the term abda (slave) is one I heard often while living there – the cordoning off and manhandling of hundreds of black Muslim women looks very bad.
As the kingdom deported several thousand Nigerian overstayers last year, the mahram issue may well be a ham-fisted cover for a pre-emptive crackdown on immigration. Though it is perfectly within the kingdom's rights to apply entry conditions, it is unreasonable to do it under false pretences.
Whether it is the result of clumsy instruction from above or airport officials acting stubbornly and forcing the government to back them, the incident and the scores of angry women arriving in Nigeria and venting their ire to international media are an embarrassment to the Saudis at the beginning of hajj season.
Re: Treatment of female Nigerian pilgrims embarrasses Saudis at the start of hajj
Nigeria: Deported Pilgrims Begin Return to Saudi Arabia
12 October 2012
Abuja, Kaduna, Jalingo, Dutse, Ibadan, Katsina, Kano — Some of the Nigerian female pilgrims deported to the country from Saudi Arabia for lack of male guardians (muhram) about two weeks ago are now being taking back to the holy land for this year's hajj following resolution of the diplomatic misunderstanding between the two countries.
Report from Kaduna indicates that the affected pilgrims from Kaduna State have since returned to Saudi Arabia to continue with their observance of the hajj rites.
The state Pilgrims Welfare Board's public relations officer, Mallam Yunusa Muhammad confirmed the development, saying the remaining pilgrims were on their way back to Saudi Arabia.
"52 female pilgrims from Kaduna State were deported. Some, out of this number, have since returned. I don't have the statistics but I know that some were returned. Out of the remaining ones, some of them have got their second visa while we are still waiting for the remaining second visas. Pilgrims officers from respective local governments are used as Muhrams (male escorts) of the female pilgrims that is for those who don't have relatives going with them", he said.
Our Taraba correspondent reports that more than half of the 63 women pilgrims from the state deported by Saudi authorities have gone back while the remaining will today be airlifted back to the holy land to continue their hajj.
Chairman Muslims Pilgrims Welfare Board for the state Alhaji Hamman Adama Tukur said 49 women out of the 63 that were deported had already gone back and the remaining 14 will leave today with hajj officials. Tukur said the deportees were between the ages of 18 and 35 years.
And in Jigawa, the certified visas of 193 pilgrims from the state out of the 205 that were deported had since been issued.
Executive Secretary of the state Pilgrims' Welfare Board Alhaji Sani Ahmed Alhassan the visas of the remaining pilgrims would be "ready any moment from now".
Report from Ibadan says the affected pilgrims from the state are still hopeful of being taking back to the holy land. One of the affected female pilgrims Mrs. Bolanle Ajibade said arrangements are on by pilgrims' board from the state to ensure that they do not suffer unjustly for the recent mix up.
The 16 Katsina female intending pilgrims deported last Wednesday from Saudi Arabia might perform this year's hajj, according to executive secretary of the Katsina pilgrims' board Alhaji Aminu Dababa.
Dababa said the Saudi Consulate in Kano had issued guidelines on how to ratify visa problems, saying "the board had already handed over their passports to Saudi Consulate office in Kano to effect the correct changes."
All the 50 deported female pilgrims from Kebbi State are going to be taken back for the hajj, executive chairman of the state Pilgrims Welfare Board Alhaji Usman Bello Suru said.
Suru said the board had commenced arrangement for returning all the pilgrims to Saudi Arabia for this year's hajj, saying the board had returned the passports of the affected pilgrims to Kano for the re-issuance of visas.
But reports from Kano say the deported female pilgrims from state are yet to be flown back for the annual religious ritual.
Checks by Daily Trust in Kano revealed that none of the deportees has been taken back for the exercise as at yesterday.
One of the intending pilgrims told our correspondent that their passports had been collected by the state hajj officials, saying no date of departure had been communicated to them.
"We were told that the passports would be used to reprocess our entry visas to Saudi Arabia, but nobody was specific about the return date," said Maryam Sani.
Spokesperson of Kano State Pilgrims Welfare Board Alhaji Nuhu Badamasi confirmed that none of the deported women pilgrims has been airlifted back to the holy land yet.
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