Siapa Mahram Kami?

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh..

Met an old friend last night. My schoolmate, Aze and I was in the same class in standard 6. We stayed in touch via FB and last night's meet up was after 10 years, after the last reunion in 2003. She traveled quite a fair bit, hence I was listening with envy and aspire to travel as much as well. 

When asked what is her next travel would be, she dropped the bomb, she's on waiting list for Hajj. Subhanallah!! My envy just went up one level. She and her housemate, Kimi are both in the waiting list. They would know sometime this week or next week. She was a bit concern that her visa will not get approved. Her neighbour, was refused visa last few days and the reason is simple. She has no mahram. Yes, the main concern for most of the single ladies out there. 

I was lucky because back in 2009, Saudi government still allow this term called 'tumpang mahram'. So my mahram was arranged by the travel company, I had this uncle from JB as my mahram. But that is for umrah, I have yet to perform my Hajj, and no doubt I really want to do that. This year, that has changed, Put went for umrah with her family, and Shaz wanted to tag along, but due to the strict mahram requirement, she could not make it. 

Kimi mentioned there are some 600 Hajj applicants that has no mahram. Did I not say that this is an ummah issue before? Who are the people that needs mahram? Women, and why we do not have mahram? we are not married yet. Why we are not married yet? Duuhhh..... Sebab tak ada calon la....bukan sebab kami memilih. And I am pretty sure those 600 is just the tip of the iceberg. I have yet to be included in the statistic. We are facing this issue, we are being denied the rights to perform Hajj/Umrah simply because we couldn't find the 'mahram'.

No doubt many of us have father, brothers, and other male relatives, but the most afdhal mahram would still be a husband.

Mana calon-calon mahram kami ni? A question that I have no answer for. I am hoping there can be a solution for this mahram issue from Saudi government perspective. Wallahu a'lam...