As millions of Muslims complete Hajj this week, we revisit a question scholars have debated for centuries: can a Muslim woman make a journey like that without a mahram?

This week on the show, host Sohaira Siddiqui recalls the first time she ran headfirst into that debate, when she decided to tell her parents she wanted to move to Jordan to study Arabic. And how that initial conversation at her parents' kitchen table led her to dive deep into centuries of scholarly debate on the topic, from the Mughal princess Gulbadan Begum's seven-year pilgrimage to Mecca, to the 2023 Saudi ruling that let women perform Hajj without a male guardian.

Years later, in post-Arab Spring Egypt, a young woman in the middle of a spiritual crisis feels the same pull to leave, and signs up for a women's retreat in Morocco, hoping a group of new Muslims might help her find her way back to a faith she's losing her grip on.

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Hosted by Sohaira Siddiqui.

Reported by Nadeen Shaker, with help from Tanita Rahmani.

Produced by Tanita Rahmani.

Editing by Salman Ahad Khan.

Fact-checking by Heba Elorbany.

Special thanks to Sadia Ramzan from The Muslim Women Travel Group, Parvez Siddiqui, and Suzanne Gaber.

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Suggested Reading:

• Begum, Gulbadan. The History of Humāyūn (Humāyūn-Nāma). Translated by Annette S. Beveridge. London: Royal Asiatic Society, 1902.
• Lal, Ruby. Vagabond Princess: The Great Adventures of Gulbadan. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2024.