Travel agency under fire for covering up Nur Sajat’s gender status for umrah

by Theleaders-Online | February 3, 2020 6:17 am

Albayt Travel (M) Sdn Bhd, under fire for its controversial travel arrangements for cosmetics entrepreneur Nur Sajat and her family to perform the umrah, announced that they were trying to clarify the matter with the Malaysian consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

They are doing so through the advice of a Mutawwif (umrah leader) on duty in Makkah.

In a statement yesterday, Albayt Travel said they made arrangements for Nur Sajat and her family to perform umrah, with condition that they do not publicise the matter.

“The special umrah group of Nur Sajat’s family and her business partner, accompanied by nine people, seven adults and two children with a Mutawwif from Jan 28 to Feb 7.

“Their travel destinations were Medina, Makkah and Jeddah using tourist visas,” it said.

According to the agency, they had informed their client that there were differences in the management and legal procedure for their umrah, due to Nur Sajat’s identity as a transgender.

“The client acknowledges that the gender status may affect the sensitivities of the Muslim community.

“Thus, we took precautionary steps from preparing documents for visa processing, special pilgrimage courses and we even gave her advice on how to perform certain rituals while in Makkah,” it said.

The agency also emphasised to the client that they should not publicise their umrah journey through any media outlet due to concerns that it may cause unease among the Muslim community.

However, Nur Sajat went against Albayt Travel’s advice and published photos of their visit on social media platforms.

“So what happened was beyond our control. I hope everyone is clear on this,” it said.

Nur Sajat was found trending today with 24.9k tweets, mostly Muslims who were enraged by the businesswoman’s decision to use the female identity for umrah.

Here are some of the tweets:

This Sajat and his friends disguising as women and praying in the Holy Qaabah aside those are not mahraam. This cannot be tolerate bu any Muslims not just in Malaysia but all Muslims around the world.@KingSalman[1] pic.twitter.com/Crk7OdrIjP[2]
— Orenji オレンジ (@OrenjiRenOren) February 3, 2020[3]

Just imagine if she goes to pray on the women side n touched them in any way. Imagine if a women in her ihram trying to fix her hijab and sajat is there witnessing it.

Just imagine that. https://t.co/UHBI7xNXxv[4]
— Bella (@mishap_bella) February 3, 2020[5]

From the very beginning I knew that Sajjad performed his umrah in male resemblance but as for Instagram worthy, he wore the telekung bravely in Mecca's Holy Land so that he can gained Malaysian's trust for the term "Sajat Perempuan".

May Allah shown him the lights of truth. https://t.co/2MDcKV9lOv[6]
— فاریس شکیرین (@farissyakirin) February 2, 2020[7]

By Hema Subramaniam

Endnotes:

@KingSalman: https://twitter.com/KingSalman?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
pic.twitter.com/Crk7OdrIjP: https://t.co/Crk7OdrIjP
February 3, 2020: https://twitter.com/OrenjiRenOren/status/1224157279563370496?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://t.co/UHBI7xNXxv: https://t.co/UHBI7xNXxv
February 3, 2020: https://twitter.com/mishap_bella/status/1224130553055604736?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://t.co/2MDcKV9lOv: https://t.co/2MDcKV9lOv
February 2, 2020: https://twitter.com/farissyakirin/status/1223972222517170177?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Source URL: https://theleaders-online.com/travel-agency-under-fire-for-covering-up-nur-sajats-gender-status-for-umrah/