In a significant development, the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) has granted conditional permission to Pakistani women to perform Hajj without a mahram. The CII, a constitutional body that advises the government on Islamic issues, has conditioned the permission on the woman being accompanied by trustworthy women in a group.

The CII’s decision comes in response to a query from the Religious Affairs Ministry, which had sought the council’s opinion on the matter. The ministry’s query followed a decision by the Saudi government in October last year to allow women from across the world to perform Hajj and Umrah without a mahram.

The CII’s conditional permission is based on the provisions of the Jafria, Maliki, and Shafi’i schools of Islamic thought, which allow women to perform Hajj without a mahram under certain conditions. The Hanafi and Hanbali schools of thought, however, do not consider Hajj to be an obligation for a woman if she does not have a male mahram.

The CII has also directed the Religious Affairs Ministry to properly scrutinize any Hajj group in which a woman wants to perform the religious obligation without a mahram. This is to ensure that women who choose to perform Hajj without a mahram are accompanied by trustworthy women and are not placed in any harm’s way.

The CII’s decision is a welcome step towards empowering Pakistani women and granting them greater freedom to fulfill their religious obligations. It is also in line with the Saudi government’s efforts to make Hajj more accessible to women from around the world.