Lessons from a pilgrimage,

Sat, 08 Dec 2007 22:45:39 +0000

By Farah Mihlar

As an adult I have only once in my life been hit by a man. It happened when I was on pilgrimage in the Muslim holy city of Mecca. I had completed the very trying pilgrimage soon after arriving in Mecca following a more than 10 hour journey. It was 2 a.m. in the morning and I crumpled on to the floor in the mosque in absolute exhaustion only to be awakened by a shot on my leg with a baton from a towering man, in long robes, screaming something in Arabic. Apparently in my state of fatigue I had fallen asleep in an area that was not for women - even though at this time in this part of the mosque there were barely three other people and I was accompanied by a 'male guardian'.

I find it a great solace and a wonderful spiritual experience to go to Mecca, which is considered the holiest city for Muslims. It houses the Kaaba that is the central point to which Muslims turn to in prayer, and in pilgrimage millions rotate around this bare brick box which Muslim's believe is God's house built by Abraham and later Muhammad, both prophets of Islam. But as a woman, going to Mecca, in particular to the mosque, is also an extremely humiliating experience. It starts from the point where I can not enter the city without being accompanied by a male guardian - a father, brother, uncle, husband or son. The mosque is segregated during most of the year and the sections for women seem considerably smaller to that allocated to men. Just in front of the Kaaba there is no segregation but the prayer areas are specified and I have been physically moved, while in prayer, because I did not strictly follow the rules. I have also been dragged out of crowds and forcibly had the few strands of hair that had slipped out of my head scarf pushed back.

Read the rest of this post...

open Democracy News Analysis - Lessons from a pilgrimage, - Comments

Lessons from a pilgrimage,