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ABSTRACT
Muslim women experience the pilgrimage to Mecca differently from their fellow males. This is not surprising when one considers the many feminist and gender-sensitive studies that have been dealing with social, political, historical, cultural, and economic issues from women’s and gendered perspectives. The surprising fact is the silence on the gendered experiences of Muslim pilgrimage—of hajj and umrah. This article examines fundamental differences in the experiences of female and male pilgrims related to their social relations, embodied experiences of the rituals, and socio-political positioning. The goal is to narrow the research gap regarding the Muslim pilgrimage–gender nexus on a descriptive level and to investigate contradictions between the normative approach of equality before God during pilgrimage and the lived, often oppressive, experiences of Muslim women on their pilgrimage journeys on a theoretical level.
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to Monika Arnez, Shamsul Amri Baharuddin, Sharon A. Bong, Marjo Buitelaar, Mirjam Lücking, Guido Sprenger, Manja Stephan-Emmrich, and Yeoh Seng Guan for their discussions and comments on this research. I am also grateful to Elisabeth Arweck for taking care of this publication and to the anonymous peer reviewers of the Journal of Contemporary Religion who reviewed the manuscript.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. The hajj (the pilgrimage) and umrah (sometimes referred to as the ‘minor pilgrimage’) are journeys undertaken to the holy places of Islam in Saudi Arabia (McDonnell Citation1990; Mols and Buitelaar Citation2015). The hajj is the fifth pillar of Sunni Islam and one of the obligatory practices of Shia Islam’s Ancillaries of the Faith. Therefore, the hajj is compulsory for every Muslim, as long as s/he can physically and financially undertake the journey. Hajj can only be performed between the 8th and 12th day of Zulhijjah, the last month of the Islamic calendar. Before commencing the hajj rituals in and outside Mecca, pilgrims take off their everyday clothes to enter the state of ihram, a state of consecration. The rituals in Mecca commence with tawaf—circumambulating the Kaaba seven times. After tawaf, pilgrims run back and forth seven times between the two hills of al-Safa and al-Marwah (sa’ir), where Ibrahim had left his wife Hagar and his son. Pilgrims then head to the hill of Arafah, located 25 kilometres from Mecca, where they pray and meditate from noon to sunset. From there, the pilgrims go to the plain of Muzdalifa, where they collect 21 small stones. These stones are thrown at the three pillars of Aqaba in Mina, which symbolises the stoning of Satan. At the end of the hajj, thousands of sacrificial animals, such as sheep, goats, and camels, are slaughtered in Mina. In contrast to the hajj, umrah is not compulsory. Whereas the time frame for the hajj is specified, umrah can be performed within a period of seven months. Whereas the hajj lasts five days, umrah can be completed within a single day, as the rituals outside Mecca are not usually performed.
2. My vernacular translations are given in Malay (Bahasa Melayu), not in Arabic, although it is worth mentioning that the vocabulary in Malay related to Islam is usually based on Arabic.
3. Jihad can mean a personal struggle against depravity and misdeed within oneself in devotion to Islam, especially involving spiritual discipline, or a struggle against enemies of Islam.
4. The Malaysian Constitution stipulates Sunni Islam as the state religion and, interestingly, as the compulsory religion for all Malays (article 3 [1]; 160). The mazhab followed in Malaysia is Shafi’i.
5. Tabung Haji is the institutional Pilgrimage Funding Board in Malaysia which organises and regulates the hajj.
6. From independence in 1957 until 9 May 2018, Malaysia was ruled by the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) which, from 1973 onwards, was part of the coalition Barisan Nasional (BN or “National Front”). Since the ground-breaking general elections in May 2018, BN lost its power and the country has been ruled by the liberal coalition of Pakatan Harapan (PH or “Alliance of Hope”). I do not have any information yet about the distribution of hajj seats under PH.
7. Since June 2018 women have been allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia. The consequences of this for women residing in Saudi Arabia performing hajj and umrah is worth future research.
8. The ninth day of Zulhijjah (the twelfth and final month in the Islamic Hijri calendar) and the second day of hajj.
9. Hari Raya Hajji or Hari Raya Korban is the festival when animals are slaughtered as a symbol of sacrifice.
10. Isyak is the fifth daily obligatory prayer after subuh (early morning), zohor (noon), asar (afternoon), and maghrib (evening).
11. The Black Stone is a rock set into the eastern corner of the Kaaba. It is revered by Muslims as an Islamic relic which, according to Muslim tradition, dates back to the time of the Prophet Ibrahim, his wife Hagar, and their son Ismail. Tawaf begins and ends with facing this sacred stone.
12. Sa’i is one of the pilgrimage rituals in Mecca. Pilgrims run back and forth between the two hills Al-Safa and Al-Marwa seven times in order to commemorate Hagar’s search for water for her son Ismail when they were left in the desert by Hagar’s husband Ibrahim.
13. The twelfth and final month of the Islamic Hijri calendar.
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Viola Thimm
Viola Thimm is a Professoral Candidate (Habilitandin) at the Institute of Anthropology at the University of Heidelberg, Germany. She was a Research Fellow in the Department of Languages and Cultures of Southeast Asia at the Asia-Africa Institute of the University of Hamburg. Her post-doctoral project was concerned with gender, Muslim pilgrimage, and consumption (Principal Investigator), funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. She studied Cultural Anthropology, Gender Studies, and Romance Studies and was awarded her PhD on “Gender and Educational Migration in Singapore and Malaysia” in Cultural Anthropology by the University of Göttingen, Germany, in 2013. She has been a guest researcher at Zayed University, UAE (2017–2018), Monash University, Malaysia (2017), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (2009), and the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS; now ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute), and Singapore (2008). Fellowships and awards, besides those mentioned in the acknowledgements, include a Doctoral Fellowship by the Hans Böckler Foundation. Among recent publications is the edited volume Understanding Muslim Mobilities and Gender (2018). CORRESPONDENCE: University of Heidelberg, Institute of Anthropology, Voßstr. 2, Building 4110, 69115 Heidelberg, Germany.