Manama: A 104-year-old woman from Indonesia has been identified as among the oldest people to perform Haj this year.
Mariah Marghani Mohammad was welcomed with great fanfare upon landing in the airport of the Red Sea city of Jeddah, 70km from Makkah where the rituals of Haj are performed annually.
According to Saudi media, she is the oldest among the 221,000 people from Indonesia who have been fortunate to be selected to go for Haj this year.
Mohammad Hery Saripudin, Indonesia’s Consul General in Jeddah, told Saudi daily Arab News that around one million Muslims are waitlisted in his country to perform Haj and that applicants had to wait on average six years before being able to go to Makkah.
Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world, with approximately 202.9 million identifying themselves as Muslim. The figure represents 87.2 per cent of the total population in 2011.
The Consul General said that Mariah was in good health and that she would be able to perform the rituals over a maximum of six days without problems.
Mariah reportedly boarded the first Haj flight to depart from Lombok International Airport in Indonesia.
The Centre for International Communication, an initiative by Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Culture and Information to facilitate relations with global media, posted on its recently-launched Twitter account the special arrival of Mariah in both English and Indonesian.
Haj will this year start on August 30 with the gathering of the more than two million pilgrims at the tent city of Mina in the outskirts of Makkah. The ascent on Mount Arafat, also near Makkah, will be on August 31 and Eid Al Adha, the Feast of the Sacrifice celebrated by Muslims across the world, on September 1.
