pilgrims heading to Mecca at Saudi Arabia's busiest airport over a
rule requiring them to travel with a husband or male relative is
threatening to bring a diplomatic dispute between the two nations.
Saudi authorities are holding 908 Nigerian women in poor conditions
"with some needing urgent medical attention" at King Abdulaziz Airport
in Jeddah and threatened to deport them, the National Hajj Commission
of Nigeria said in a report submitted to Nigerian lawmakers Wednesday.
The report said female pilgrims who had landed in a smaller airport in
Medina had been unaffected.
However, Fuwaiba Muhammad, a pilgrim, told an Associated Press
reporter at Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport in the northern
Nigerian city of Kano that she had been deported Wednesday from the
Saudi Arabian city of Medina, along with dozens of others.
Uba Mana, a spokesman for the National Hajj Commission, said no
pilgrim had been deported by Saudi authorities yet, but that the
commission had asked for female pilgrims who did not meet the Saudi
immigration officials' requirements to temporarily be brought back to
Nigeria to avoid deportations.
"Medina is a small airport," Mana said, "and if we allow people to get
deported from there, the pilgrims won't be able to return to Saudi
Arabia for another five years, and by no fault of their own," he said.
This is the first time pilgrims have faced the possibility of mass
deportation over the male escort issue, the commission has said.
According to the report, an agreement between Saudi Arabia and Nigeria
exempts female pilgrims from requiring a male relative to escort them
for the mandatory Hajj pilgrimage, which costs about $4,000 per
person.
Until now, state pilgrimage officials had been allowed to stand in the
place of a male relative or husband. Muhammad, for instance, said that
she had been traveling with a Hajj official who is not her relative.
But Saudi authorities have proven much stricter this year. They even
stopped women who did travel with their husbands.
"Islam allows wives to bear the names of their parents and not
necessarily that of their husbands," the report argued.
All able-bodied Muslims who can afford it are expected to perform Hajj
at least once in their lives, leading people to go to great lengths to
make the trip.
Some pilgrims sell their cows and jewelry and others save for months
or years to pay their own way to Mecca. Muslim philanthropists and
politicians in Nigeria will typically sponsor some pilgrims annually.
Mana had said Monday that the escort situation had been resolved
through diplomatic channels, but the commission's report Wednesday
said Saudi authorities have "remained adamant."
The report said top Nigerian officials had held meetings with Saudi
officials in Nigeria and in Saudi Arabia in a bid to come to reach a
compromise.
Nigeria's Foreign Ministry sent a letter of undertaking guaranteeing
the return of the female pilgrims after Hajj, it added, but Saudi
authorities still did not release them.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan put together a high-profile
delegation late Wednesday to travel to Saudi Arabia "as soon as an
appointment is finalized with the appropriate authority," a government
statement said.
Saudi officials could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday.
Nigeria, a nation of more than 160 million people evenly divided
between Muslims and Christians, and Saudi Arabia are both members of
the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, an umbrella organization
representing 57 Muslim nations.
Associated Press writers Yinka Ibukun in Lagos, and Salisu Rabiu in
Kano
No comments:
Post a Comment