Saudi Government should should appoint female police squad to watch the miscreants, lascivious people who harass the women during the "Twaf-e-Ka'aba". Female pilgrims experinced a number of incidents of sexual harassment. King Salman should take effective measures for the security and safety of women . While one might think that men would tame their vile urges while performing their religious Islamic duties in the holy city of Mecca, the reality is quite disturbing.
Women have recently been speaking out about their experiences with sexual harassment while carrying out tawaf around the Kaaba during their pilgrimage to Mecca.
. A women from Karachi shared the horrible story of being harassed during Tawaf-e-Kabba.
Sabica Khan took it to the social media to reveal the ghastly details of being subjected to the sexual assault at a place where we all want to feel the safest. According to her:
“While performing my Tawaf around the Kaaba after Isha prayer, something really weird happened. It was my 3rd tawaf, and I felt a hand on my waist. I thought it was just an innocent mistake. I completely ignored. Then… I felt it again. It made me feel very uncomfortable. I kept moving. During my 6th tawaf, I suddenly felt something aggressively poking my butt, I froze, unsure of whether it was intentional.”
“I ignored and just kept moving slowly because the crowd was huge. I even tried to turn around but woefully couldn’t. When I reached the Yemeni corner, someone tried to grab and pinch my butt.” She shared and continued, “I decided to stop there. Grabbed his hand and threw it off me *couldn’t move or turn around* I was literally petrified. Couldn’t even escape, so I stood, and turned around as much as I could, to see what’s happening, I turned around but… couldn’t see who it was.”
According to her account, she felt violated and unable to speak. She stayed quite out of shame and the fear that no one would trust her. However, finally found the courage to speak up.After Sabica shared the most unfortunates incident on Facebook, people who have been through the same started sharing their experiences. Few other women, who wished to keep their identity anonymous, shared:
” I am ashamed to admit that I have experienced that too during tawaf. I wasn’t even safe from the lustful staring of some shaytans. It is so sad that Even the holiest place on earth isn’t safe for women.”
“Women aren’t safe anywhere, I experienced more or less same during tawaf at Huj 2010.”
Author and public speaker, Mona Eltahawy, also took it to the Twitter to share harassment she faced during Hajj.Another Twitter user shared that his mother and sisters went to Hajj and were groped.
Aziza, 37, who did not give her surname, told The Times that it was a common problem that all women doing the pilgrimage had to “put up with”. “It happened to me and my family multiple times, being pinched or touched by male organs during the approach to [the Kaaba],” she said. “The first time I was just nine years old, so I didn’t really understand. My sister was 14 then and she told Mum who realised both [of us] had been felt up.”
Aziza, from Pakistan, said that her female relatives now avoided the crowded areas around the Kaaba. “We try to walk as fast as possible. We time our visit at low crowds,” she added.
Women usually make up just under half the total number of pilgrims who flock to Mecca each year to perform haj, or to do umrah, a smaller pilgrimage. Last year, when haj began on August 30, just over a million women attended, 43 per cent of all pilgrims.
Women told The Times that officers were stationed in the Grand Mosque and at key points along the routes, but that it was impossible to properly police such large crowds.
Some women have said that they are too ashamed or afraid to report the incidents in Saudi Arabia, where clerics frequently blame women for the harassment and violence they suffer. The authorities in Mecca were not available for comment.
Fatma Mohamed, who also wrote about her assault on Facebook, said that the attackers in Mecca “depend on this fear, the shock and the silence of women” to keep going.
Aziza urged the government of Saudi Arabia to implement new measures to protect and inform women. She said she hoped that there might be changes as the country’s ruling princes begin to implement more liberal reforms. The country has put an end to certain restrictions for women over the past year. They are now allowed to drive.
“If there is a spirit to improve things with the new reforms for women in Saudi then let us hope in some way this can be dealt with too,” Aziza added.
One woman, who chose to remain anonymous, told StepFeed she has been sexually harassed multiple times during her many visits to Mecca for Umrah, the non-mandatory Islamic pilgrimage.
She said harassment is most common in the queue leading to the Black Stone, a rock set into the eastern corner of the Kaaba.
She explained that she has encountered "pinches and inappropriately being touched by male organs at the butt" on multiple occasions.
As a result, during her recent visits to Mecca, she has been avoiding the Black Stone and performing tawaf in the outermost perimeter, which is less crowded.
Mona Eltahawy says :I have shared my experience of being sexually assaulted during Haj in 1982 when I was 15 in the hope that it will help fellow Muslim women break silence and taboo around their experience of sexual harassment/abuse during Haj/Umra or in sacred spaces.
