Fifty five Umrah companies which have been suspended for more than five years are demanding to be allowed to resume their activities. They claim their suspension was imposed without sufficient reasons and are calling on the new Minister of Haj, Dr. Bandar Al-Hajjar, to overturn the ruling. Many of the companies, which serve about 200,000 pilgrims, have already resumed their activities after a court found they had not infringed the ministry's rules. The minister is facing calls by Mutawifs to resolve other serious problems facing the Umrah and Haj workers. The Head of the Transportation Committee at Makkah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Saad Al-Qurashi, called for the urgent resolution of the issues as the next Umrah season begins in a few days. “Important issues to be resolved include increasing the accommodation capacity of internal Haj companies in Mina and the housing of pilgrims in Al-Azizyia,” Al-Qurashi said. The minister is also being urged to roll out a new system whereby the Tawafa establishments rather than foreign Haj missions will be responsible for housing pilgrims in the holy sites. Under this system, the ministry will be able to oversee the performance of these establishments and question them on any shortcomings in their services. Samahir Koshak, a female Mutawif, has also demanded the immediate removal of male representative rule for female Mutawifs. She said that “male representative rule is a big obstacle facing women Mutawifs because the representative takes one-third of their income for no other reason but to follow up their transactions with the ministry's agencies.” Meanwhile, Shadia Ghazali, an official at the Coordination Commission of the Tawafa Establishments, is currently devising a way to allow female Mutawifs to participate in all Tawafa services. She has urged the minister to endorse this mechanism.
