Large Rise in Pilgrims Traveling to Mecca From Kurdistan Reg

[Aslan]

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Some 60,000 people from Iraq’s Kurdistan Region are expected to perform the Hajj and Umrah rituals this year, a dramatic increase over the past few years, reflecting both an improvement in living standards and the ease of travel from the region’s own two airports, officials say.

The ministry of religious affairs says that so far this year more than 13,000 people have flown from Kurdistan to Saudi Arabia, and travel agencies catering to pilgrims report that a large number of travelers are young people.

Last year, some 50,000 pilgrims from the Kurdistan Region traveled to Mecca for the rituals, and 45 percent were young people,| said Mariwn Naqshbandy, spokesperson for the religious affairs ministry. That number is expected to rise to 60,000 this year, Naqshbandy said.

“Forty percent of this year’s pilgrims were young people,” travel agent Sadradin Karim told Rudaw.

The rising numbers, the ministry argues, is due in part to improving living standards in the Kurdistan Region, and easy access to the autonomous enclave’s modern Erbil and Sulaimani international airports.

Karim believes that the reason for the sudden influx of young pilgrims to the Saudi city of Mecca, Islam’s holiest place, is the comparatively low cost of the trip.

“A10-day trip to Saudi Arabia that includes airfare, hotel, and transportation costs less than $1,000,” he says.

Every able-bodied Muslim with sufficient financial means is religiously required to perform the Hajj rituals once in a lifetime.

Sivar Sirwan, a resident of Erbil, says that these days some people go to Hajj hoping that God will grant their wishes.

“Most of my friends went to Hajj with unfulfilled dreams,” he says. “They hear it is a place to pray for wishes and dreams to come true.”

Nazanin Nadir, a woman from Erbil, says she has already reaped the fruits of the holy journey.

“I couldn’t have a baby before, but now I am pregnant,” she says.

Mullah Muayad, a cleric in Erbil, says that going to Mecca and meeting people from all corners of the world is one of the best ways to understand Islam.

But Hiwa Ali, a university professor of economy says that the large number of pilgrims is a drain on the regional economy, depriving the Kurdistan Region of much needed cash.

“Some people go to Hajj every year and that harms the Kurdistan Region’s economy,” he says.

Some Hajjis argue that one of the advantages of the pilgrimage is introducing the Kurds and their culture to the rest of the world.

“The Saudi shopkeepers didn’t know anything about the Kurds 10 years ago, but now they can communicate in Kurdish with their Kurdish customers,” says Karim, the travel agent.

Ali believes otherwise, saying that after a trip to Saudi Arabia, many Kurds come home wearing the Arab long robe known as a “dishdash.”

“Even the price of Arab robes has increased in the market, because most of the returnees consider the robe holy,” he says.