Village Journals
Resonate your identity with Naseeb journals. Express your opinions, share your thoughts, post your writings and connect with like minded people through the power of expression.
Resonate your identity with Naseeb journals. Express your opinions, share your thoughts, post your writings and connect with like minded people through the power of expression.
US Muslim school Girls go to Makkah without a Marham
Until this year, the answer from the Saudi Embassy in Washington, D.C., was always the same: NO.
A group of American Muslim high school girls could not enter the kingdom to make Umrah to the holy city of Mecca. No, they could not enter Saudi Arabia, even under the supervision of adult female chaperons.
Khalid Baste, the principal of the Al-Aqsa School and a chaperon on the pilgrimage, said students from the school had been applying for pilgrimage visas for at least 20 years.
She remembers applying when she was a student at the school 17 years ago. Each time, the Saudi Embassy informed them that their applications had been denied.
"They said each girl needed a mahram," Baste said, who has made previous pilgrimages accompanied by male relatives. "Or we just got no answer at all."
Some Muslim leaders in Chicago attribute the change of heart to the nature of the Umrah pilgrimage. Unlike the Hajj, the trek to Mecca and Medina that every Muslim strives to make once in a lifetime, Umrah is a mini-pilgrimage that is considered more relaxed, though pilgrims generally observe all the rituals, such as circling the Kaaba, a shrine that Muslims believe was built by the Patriarch Abraham, whom they call Ibrahim.
Without attributing too much significance to this one incident, other Muslims said Saudi Arabia might be feeling pressure to entertain interpretations of Islam that are less strict than those of the kingdom's Wahhabi clerics. As gatekeepers to Islam's holiest sites, they've been able to enforce traditions such as the mahram.
"They've been imposing their doctrine on the rest of the Muslims, and it's very unfair," said Assad Busool, a professor at the American Islamic College in Chicago. "There are a lot of rumblings about this, even in Saudi Arabia, so they must open up."
Whatever the reason, the Saudi decision allowed these senior high school girls to spend spring break on a spiritual journey that some said was all the more special because they could bond uninterrupted by fathers and brothers.
"I think having a man there would have made it a lot less special," said Nadia Ismail, a student.
The girls recounted moments of splendor as they stood before the Kaaba and walked between the hills of Safa and Marwah, re-enacting Hagar's search for water, as described in the Quran. Back in Chicago, like high school girls everywhere, they giggled about their shared experiences. But many also cried as they described the life-transforming journey.
"When you're near it you're so close to God," said Tahanee Ghanayem. "It's almost like a piece of heaven."
www.islamicity.com
A group of American Muslim high school girls could not enter the kingdom to make Umrah to the holy city of Mecca. No, they could not enter Saudi Arabia, even under the supervision of adult female chaperons.
Khalid Baste, the principal of the Al-Aqsa School and a chaperon on the pilgrimage, said students from the school had been applying for pilgrimage visas for at least 20 years.
She remembers applying when she was a student at the school 17 years ago. Each time, the Saudi Embassy informed them that their applications had been denied.
"They said each girl needed a mahram," Baste said, who has made previous pilgrimages accompanied by male relatives. "Or we just got no answer at all."
Some Muslim leaders in Chicago attribute the change of heart to the nature of the Umrah pilgrimage. Unlike the Hajj, the trek to Mecca and Medina that every Muslim strives to make once in a lifetime, Umrah is a mini-pilgrimage that is considered more relaxed, though pilgrims generally observe all the rituals, such as circling the Kaaba, a shrine that Muslims believe was built by the Patriarch Abraham, whom they call Ibrahim.
Without attributing too much significance to this one incident, other Muslims said Saudi Arabia might be feeling pressure to entertain interpretations of Islam that are less strict than those of the kingdom's Wahhabi clerics. As gatekeepers to Islam's holiest sites, they've been able to enforce traditions such as the mahram.
"They've been imposing their doctrine on the rest of the Muslims, and it's very unfair," said Assad Busool, a professor at the American Islamic College in Chicago. "There are a lot of rumblings about this, even in Saudi Arabia, so they must open up."
Whatever the reason, the Saudi decision allowed these senior high school girls to spend spring break on a spiritual journey that some said was all the more special because they could bond uninterrupted by fathers and brothers.
"I think having a man there would have made it a lot less special," said Nadia Ismail, a student.
The girls recounted moments of splendor as they stood before the Kaaba and walked between the hills of Safa and Marwah, re-enacting Hagar's search for water, as described in the Quran. Back in Chicago, like high school girls everywhere, they giggled about their shared experiences. But many also cried as they described the life-transforming journey.
"When you're near it you're so close to God," said Tahanee Ghanayem. "It's almost like a piece of heaven."
www.islamicity.com