Over 2,300 women to go on Haj this year without 'Mehram': Naqvi

Over 2,300 Muslim women from India will go on Haj this year without 'Mehram' or male companion as all those who applied under this category have been exempted from the lottery system, Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said Wednesday.

The Modi government had last year allowed women going to Haj without Mehram, which had resulted in about 1,300 Muslim women going for the pilgrimage without any male companion. They had been exempted from the lottery system.

Naqvi, while inaugurating the new office space of Haj Division at RK Puram here, said that for the first time after the Independence, 2,340 Muslim women have applied to go on Haj 2019 without Mehram.

This year too, on the directions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Minority Affairs Ministry has made arrangement to send these women on Haj without the lottery system, he was quoted as saying in a statement released from his office.

Women from all states are among the 2,340 that have applied to go on Haj 2019 without ...