Fatima Muhammad

Saudi Gazette

JEDDAH — Women working in tawafa (Haj guidance) inherited the job from their ancestors, who in the past used to serve pilgrims not in hotels but in their own homes.



In the past Makkah families used to welcome pilgrims at their homes.

 

Men in the family would accompany pilgrims to the holy sites while women would do the cooking at home and serve pilgrims and clean their clothes.



Some women would even go with men to direct pilgrims at the holy sites. However, women are now more restricted and their tasks are limited only to visiting female patients at hospitals and accompanying women preachers in Makkah, said mutawwif Shadia Koushk.



According to her, women used to be just like male mutawwifs, but increased restrictions have distanced them from real tawafa tasks and restricted them to basic duties.



“We want the same rights that the men get.



“We opt to serve pilgrims based on rules of Shariah and get training courses as men do.”



Koushk has been working in tawafa for nearly 15 years.



“A few years back, we used to go to the holy sites of Arafat and Mina to give lectures to female pilgrims, but this is not happening anymore.”



Wafa Mahdar, a professor at Umm Al-Qura University and founder of Tawafa Without Borders for Women, said women in her generation were used to seeing pilgrims being served at their homes during their early childhood.



The new generation, she said, is interested in tawafa work through they know that there is nothing lucrative about the profession.



“Young women want to explore this career and I get many new applicants each year from girls aged 18 to 25.”



Mahdar believed that tawafa work has increasingly become a job for men.

Tawafa work, she said, requires mutawwifs to accompany pilgrims to their accommodation, the Grand Mosque and the holy sites.



She said: “Over the last 25 years, women’s role in tawafa has been marginalized and restricted to social and awareness work.”



Mahdar and her colleagues have worked on a tawafa program for women that they will show to Minister of Haj Bandar Bin Al-Hajjar for approval.



The program includes taking care of female patients at hospitals, setting up a media and awareness program for pilgrims and introducing pilgrims to Saudi heritage and historic sights in the Western Region.