Hyderabad: With preparations underway to welcome hajis ahead of Haj Season 2023, the Telangana State Haj Committee (TSCH) confirmed that 76 women applications have come from those who are ready to travel without a mehram (a male relative who is like a guardian and with whom marriage is unlawful).
Data shows that these 76 women, around 45 of whom are from Hyderabad, have applied to make the journey to Makkah in Saudi Arabia under the “without mehram” category which was introduced during the tenure of the then Union Minister for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.
The number of applications received this year are significantly higher, given the fact that last year media reports stated that only four women had applied.
TSHC sources said that there are broadly two reasons why the number of women who have resolved to perform the Haj this year is higher. The first is the unavailability of a mehram. The second is that the maslak (school of Islamic thought) of the nearly a quarter of these applicants permits them to make the pilgrimage alone without a mehram. A probable third reason is that awareness about this particular category has increased over time.
“One of the important reasons for these number of applications under the without mehram category is that their mehrams, sons or fathers or husbands of these women, are not living in India. They are living abroad. The without mehram category is convenient for them and provides for them to make the pilgrimage, which is one of the five pillars of Islam. It could be possible that their mehrams will join them at the pilgrimage. The second reason why we have seen a significant increase is on account of many women applicants being from the Shia community. There are about 22 or 23 such applications,” a source said.
In an attempt to make things easier for their women applicants, and also for the sake of bringing about a streamlining of processes in managing Haj pilgrims, the Union government decided to lay down a procedure that groups of four women who have applied under the without mehram category will be assigned a common cover number.
According to data, around 2,000 women from all over the country had applied under the without mehram category. Naqvi, who was attending an orientation programme in the national capital in May last year, said that about 3,000 women performed the haj without a mehram since the time the without mehram category was introduced.
While over 8,600 applications were sent to the TSHC this year, a total of 5,278 Haj pilgrims were selected and are scheduled to make their journey this year. It is likely that given the sliding of haj slots due to cancellations for various reasons, more from Telangana will make the pilgrimage.
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