Umrah: Saudi Arabia shares guidelines for woman traveling sans mehram

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Ministry for Hajj and Umrah on Wednesday shared guidelines for women travelling for Umrah without male guardians, ARY NEWS reported.

Sharing the details, the ministry said that the woman who plans to travel without mehram [male guardian] could obtain visa for Umrah, however, it is mandatory that they are aged above 45-year-old.

The Hajj and Umrah ministry of the Kingdom said that the local travel agents will have to form a woman-only group for the purpose.

It further clarified that women below 45 age group will have to accompany a male guardian [mehram] for performing Umrah.

Recently, a fresh travel advisory has been issued for passengers travelling to Saudi Arabia for Umrah after the Kingdom issued new directives regarding COVID restrictions.

According to details of the fresh travel guidelines, the Saudi authorities have lifted the restriction of a PCR test and approved a list of eight vaccines for those travelling for Umrah.

The vaccines approved by the Kingdom included Pfizer, Sinopharm, Sinovac, AstraZeneca, Moderna, Johnson and Johnson, Cansino and Sputnik.

The travellers would need to get one dose of Johnson and Johnson, two doses of Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Moderna and two doses and a booster shot of Sinopharm, Sinovac, and Sputnik to travel to the Kingdom.

However, those who received a single dose of Cansino will have to receive two booster shots of it before being allowed to travel to Saudi Arabia for Umrah.

The travel advisory further said that the pilgrims will have to acquire the vaccination certificate before their travel.