NEW DELHI: In his monthly radio address of ‘Mann ki baat ‘, the prime minister said “the policy of allowing Muslim women to perform Haj only in the company of a male guardian was “injustice”, and that his government has removed the restriction following which hundreds of women have applied to travel alone for the pilgrimage.
According to the ministry of minority affairs, now Muslim women aged above 45 will be allowed to go for the pilgrimage without ‘Mahram’ in a group of at least four.
The policy of allowing Muslim women to perform Haj only in the company of a male guardian was “injustice”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said his government has removed the restriction following which hundreds of women have applied to travel alone for the pilgrimage.
The removal of the restriction of having a male guardian or ‘Mahram‘ may appear as a “small thing”, but such issues “have a far reaching impact on our image as a society”.
He said when he first heard of the restriction, he was surprised as to who would have drafted such a rule.
“Why this discrimination? And when I went into the depth of the matter I was surprised to find that even after 70 years of our independence, we were the ones who had imposed these restrictions. For decades, injustice was being rendered to Muslim women but there was no discussion on it,” he said in his broadcast.
He pointed out that such a restriction is not prevalent in many Islamic countries.
“I am happy to note that this time about 1300 Muslim women have applied to perform Haj without ‘mahram’ and women from different parts of the country from Kerala to north India, have expressed their wish to go for the Haj pilgrimage,” he said.
“Usually there is a lottery system for selection of Haj pilgrims but I would like that single women pilgrims should be excluded from this lottery system and they should be given a chance as a special category,” he said.
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well done.
another step for empowerment of women.
This clearly shows we have a progressive and truly secular PM showing the way forward to rest of the Muslim nations how to live in 21st century. Those proponents of Sharia councils in the UK and their Labour party sympathisers should take a note.