Proposal would ban women at key Mecca site

Proposal would ban women at key Mecca site | Chicago Tribune: "Officials are considering an unprecedented proposal to ban women from performing the five Muslim prayers in the immediate vicinity of Islam's most sacred shrine in Mecca. Some say women are already being kept away.

The issue has raised a storm of protest across the kingdom, with some women saying they fear the move is meant to further restrict their role in Saudi society. But the religious authorities behind the proposal insist its real purpose is to lessen the chronic problem of crowding, which has led to deadly riots during pilgrimages to Mecca in the past.

Officials say they have concerns about crowding, particularly at Mecca's Grand Mosque, which contains the Kaaba, a large stone structure that Muslims around the world face during their prayers.

The chief of the King Fahd Institute for Hajj Research, which came up with the plan, said Thursday the new restrictions are already in place. There have been reports of women being asked to pray away from the area surrounding the Kaaba.

But Sheik Youssef Khzeim, deputy chief of the Presidency of the Two Holy Mosques Affairs, a Saudi government organization in charge of implementing the proposal, denied the reports.

Many Saudis say the proposal violates the spirit of Islam.

"The prophet, who is the first leader of Muslims, didn't do it," said Mohsen al-Awajy, an Islamist lawyer and cleric. "Those who are proposing the change after him have to come up with legal justification for it."