By Hadi Yahmid, IOL Correspondent
PARIS, January 9 (IslamOnline.net) - Praying for a cherished dream to come true, French female converts are disappointed at Saudi regulations, which ban women from performing hajj without a husband or a close male relative forbidden in marriage (a mahram).
Many were the times that the Saudi consulate in Paris denied female converts visas for such a reason.
The latest was on Wednesday, January 5, when a 26-year-old female convert received a point-blank refusal to her hajj visa application.
Her relatives told IslamOnline.net that it was the third time she had her request rejected by the Saudis though she was to travel along with a group of trustworthy and virtuous women.
“I did not apply for a hajj visa this year because the consulate rebuffed last year’s request,” 29-year-old Claudia, who accepted Islam five years ago, told IOL.
Hajj is one of the “five pillars” of Islam, and an essential part of Muslims’ faith and practice on the condition of physical and financial ability.
It consists of several ceremonies, meant to symbolize the essential concepts of the Islamic faith, and to commemorate the trials of Prophet Abraham and his family.
Permissible
Under Shari`ah, women cannot travel all by themselves to perform hajj and are required to be accompanied by a mahram.
Anis Qirqah, member of the European Council of Fatwa and Research, said it is permissible for Muslim women to take on the holy journey in the company of trustworthy and faithful women, citing the rulings of some juristic schools.
He told IOL that a mixed group of honest and truthful men and women can escort female pilgrims to the holy lands.
Qirqah, also the director of the Paris-based European Institute of Humanities, added that some juristic schools even said that women can go along with a group of righteous and faithful male pilgrims.
He urged Saudi authorities to adopt the “trustworthy group” option, given that a large number of the female converts are not married and have no Muslim relatives.
“Enabling them to perform hajj will definitely firm up their faith and denying them the spiritual journey could make them relapse and regress to, God forbid, apostasy,” Qirqah warned.
Abdel Hafiz Al-Khamiri, the managing editor of the Generation magazine, said the reluctance of the Saudi authorities shocked the new converts.
“They opened their hearts to this religion and found hajj as an opportunity for spiritual renewal,” he told IOL.
The first groups of French pilgrims arrived in Saudi Arabia on December 24.
Some 25,000 French Muslims are expected to perform hajj this year with more than 60% of them youths.
According to figures released by the French Interior Ministry, a record 50,000 people have embraced Islam in 2004.
Estimates put the number of Muslims in France between five and six millions, the latest Muslim community in Europe.