PM Modi On What Made Haj "Special" For Muslim Women This Year
NDTV
As many as 4,314 Indian women went for Haj without 'Mahram (male companion)' this year.
In continuation of his outreach to the Muslim community, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday, while addressing the 103rd edition of his radio programme, 'Mann ki Baat', thanked the Saudi Arabia government for making changes in the Haj policy and said due to this change, over 4,000 Muslim women from India performed Haj without 'mehram' (male companion). He said many of them had written to them to express their joy and give their blessings.
"There are some letters that bring you a lot of joy and inspiration. The letters that my Muslim mothers and sisters have written to me, after returning from Haj, are like that. Their journey this year was very special in many ways. These are women who have been able to go to Haj without a male companion that was not allowed earlier. I want to thank the Saudi Arabia government for this change in policy," he said, calling the shift "transformative" as the number of women going for Haj from India without men accompanying them was not "50 or 100" but over 4,000.
Amid international scrutiny on human rights record and treatment of women, Saudi Arabia in 2019 had said that it would allow women to travel without the permission of a male relative.
