FOMWAG calls for inclusion of women on Hajj Board

The Federation of Muslim Women’s Associations in Ghana (FOMWAG) has registered its displeasure against the exclusion of women on the newly constituted Hajj Board.     

The group in a release issued to the Ghana News Agency on Thursday, in Accra, signed by Hajia Aisha Abdul-Kadir, the National Secretary is calling on the President to review the newly constituted Hajj Board to at least include a woman.

It said “being the mouth piece of Muslim women’s organizations in Ghana and a non-political organization, it wants to believe that it was an oversight on the part of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and is therefore calling for a review for a woman to be included in the Hajj Board.”    

The release said the realization of the need for women on the Hajj Board started over two decades when the National Commission on Culture prompted the National Commission on Women and Development to allow a woman to be part of the Hajj Board.    

It said, this had been the trend until a new Hajj Board was constituted last week under the leadership of President Akufo-Addo, when FOMWAG noticed with astonishment that no woman was mentioned to be part of the Hajj Board.    

The FOMWAG statement noted that this raises serious concerns because women constitute between 50 to 60 per cent of the annual Ghanaian pilgrims population.     

The release said a large size of women pilgrims calls for the need to have a women’s desk on the Board to provide welfare services and education on hygiene among others.   

Also, many women pilgrims are faced with so many challenges that only women can assist them to deal with; this is especially about educating them on Hajj rituals and procedures, preaching to them about the high expectation of good moral conduct and peaceful co-existence among roommates.    

“The Muslim women are giving such important education and preaching within their camps where men cannot or do not go. Back in Makkah, a lot of emergency situations occur that some women pilgrims need women to confide in”.    

It said all these attest to the fact that women play major roles in the Hajj operations, and women who were previously made to serve on the various Hajj Boards delivered very well.

Source; GNA