Bushra Shah finally made his "childhood dream" come true: to fulfill the great pilgrimage to Mecca. And she did it alone, benefiting from the recent Saudi decision to allow women to perform this essential rite of Islam without a male escort.

The ministry in charge of the pilgrimage, the hajj, this year authorized women, regardless of age, to go without a "tutor" or "guardian", that is, without a male member of the close family, in exchange for going in group.

"It's a dream come true. My childhood dream was to make hash," Bushra Shah told AFP as she packed her suitcase at her home in Jeddah, a large port city in western Saudi Arabia and close to Mecca.

For this Pakistani mother, going through the pilgrimage with her husband and her son would have been a distraction that would have prevented her from "fully concentrating on the rituals."

With white clothes that cover her entire body except her face, this 35-year-old woman is one of the lucky 60,000 residents of Saudi Arabia selected to participate in the hajj, held for the second consecutive year in a reduced format due to the pandemic. .

"Many women will also come with me. I am very proud that we are now independent and do not need a guardian," she says before kissing her son and saying goodbye to her husband.

- "The only option" -

Her husband, Ali Murtada, claims to have "strongly encouraged" her to travel alone following the government's decision to ban children from hajj this year.

"We decided that one of us had to go. She may be pregnant in a year or the children may not be allowed to participate yet," explains the 38-year-old Pakistani, who will stay in Jeddah.

Before, the authorities required the presence of a male companion to all women under 45 years of age, which prevented thousands of Muslim women in the world from participating in one of the five pillars of Islam, which any faithful must follow if they have the physical capacity and financial.

"Hajj without a tutor is a miracle," Marwa Shaker, a 43-year-old Egyptian who lives in Riyadh, told AFP.

In Mecca with three of her friends, this mother of three, employed by an international organization, tried several times to do the hajj before the pandemic, but she couldn't because her husband couldn't accompany her.

"I feel immense joy and happiness. God has called me despite all the obstacles," she says.

For Sadaf Ghafoor, a mother of three from an Anglo-Pakistani family, traveling without a male guardian was "the only option".

"We couldn't leave the children alone," this 40-year-old former doctor, who went to Mecca with a neighbor, explains to AFP.

"It was not an easy decision to make, but we have taken this opportunity as a gift from heaven," she explains, whose husband will stay home with the children.

- Opening with many nuances -

Despite the new regulation, whose date of entry into force was not very clear, some travel agencies are reluctant to accept women who travel without a man, an AFP journalist was able to verify.

Since the rise of the crown prince and de facto leader of the kingdom, Mohamed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia has undertaken social reforms, especially regarding women's rights, to improve the international image of the ultra-conservative country.

Now, women can drive or ride without a male guardian.

But this opening is accompanied by an implacable rejection of critical voices against his power, with many women's rights activists detained or in the crosshairs of justice.