ABSTRACT
According to Sahih Muslim, a Sunni Muslim hadith collection, women are obliged to perform their pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina in today’s Saudi Arabia solely together with a legal male chaperone (maḥram), that is, one of their immediate family members. This chapter examines fundamental differences in the experiences had by female pilgrims regarding their male supervision according to their citizenship and their Islamic belief (Sunni or Shia Islam). By comparing three stories of women from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Malaysia, the goal is to investigate the intersecting social categories and practices of gender, Islamic belief, nationality and age as enabling or as limiting factors for women on pilgrimage. Whereas for those women whose male companionship only depends on the interpretation of the belief system their Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nationality can be a loophole for their mobility, and the Saudi legislation can be, this chapter argues, an obstacle or an empty legal shell for those female citizens who require a visa to perform pilgrimage in the holy places of Mecca and Medina.
