Leaving Medina to travel to Mecca to complete the first step of my hajj – performing umrah – requires preparation. Having bathed and put on my cream-coloured abaya I tuck my hair away under my headscarf and try to get into the right frame of mind. This outfit will be worn until my umrah is complete, which is a daunting thought, given how difficult it is to get into the city of Mecca with the many checkpoints and bureaucratic steps to go through.
It could take hours, and it does: nine, to be precise. The ladies change into their clothes at the hotel before leaving, while the men get changed at an ihram station, a mosque en route to Mecca where hundreds are stopping to get into their clothes. For ladies there is no obligatory colour to wear, though most choose to wear white or cream. Men, however, are obliged to wear two white pieces of unstitched cloth. They change and then both men and women do a prayer and declare their intention to perform umrah. We are now in a state of ihram: there is no worldly talk, no talk of business, no arguing with anyone.
