Inside Saudi's hajj-only barbershop, shaving thousands of heads in a day
Near the holy city of Mecca, men in white robes stand quietly in a long queue, waiting for the next important act of their hajj pilgrimage: a haircut.
Shaving or cutting the hair comes near the end of the hajj, and marks the moment when pilgrims can change out of the Ihram clothing that signifies purity and devotion.
The barbershop, strategically positioned by the Jamarat complex in Mina, where the "stoning of the devil" ritual took place on Friday, opens exclusively for the annual hajj and does a roaring trade.
On the pilgrimage's third day, which coincides with the major festival of Eid al-Adha, its barbers typically handle 6,000 customers, said manager Imad Fawzi, an official employed by the hajj organisation.
Inside, men in plastic aprons wield electric clippers and cut-throat razors, shearing scalps on an industrial scale for 60 riyals ($13) per head.
Despite the rush -- there are so many customers that an usher is required -- Ahmed, a 28-year-old barber from Egypt, is happy in his work.
"This is a very simple thing to do, but it brings us so much joy," he says.
"We're happy to serve the pilgrims... and to be able to work in a holy place," he said.
Fawzi, who grew up in Mecca, called himself a "child of the hajj".
"I've been working in hajj since I was seven," he says.
- 'This outfit is exhausting' -
The once-a-year hairdresser is not the only place for a cut: parts of Mecca and the plain of Mina, on its outskirts, turn into an open-air barbershop at this stage of the hajj.
Leaving the Jamarat, a southeast Asian man took out a razor and started scraping the back of his head as he walked. Further down the street, a group of African men were shaving each other with clippers.
In Mecca, entire streets are lined with barbershops doing brisk business. While men shave their hair, women trim theirs by a fingertip-length.
About 1.6 million pilgrims have gathered in and around Mecca, Islam's holiest city, for this year's hajj, which all Muslims with the means must complete at least once.
Outside the Jamarat barbershop, Hani Abdel Samih is looking forward to changing out of the wrap-around skirt and shawl he has been wearing for the past three days.
"The stoning of the devil at Jamarat requires great effort and we've been wearing these clothes all day," he said.
"We wanted to wear our everyday clothes and be comfortable, so we went to the nearest barbershop we could find after the Jamarat," said the Egyptian.
Yet his face was beaming with joy. He said he did not mind the wait for a haircut that bears a special place in his spiritual journey.
"I'm excited, of course! Because this is Sunnah from the Prophet, peace be upon him," he said, referring to the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed.
"We like (this ritual) and we cannot break it," he said.
The hajj retraces the Prophet's last pilgrimage, with rites at Mecca's Grand Mosque and Mount Arafat before "stoning the devil" -- throwing pebbles at three giant walls at Jamarat.
aya/th/jsa
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ABC News
10-06-2025
- ABC News
Death toll dramatically lower in 2025 Hajj pilgrimage, though experts fear climate change will increase risk
Early reports indicate a much lower death toll than previous years at this year's Hajj pilgrimage, in which Muslims from all over the world travel to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. The annual pilgrimage, which took place from June 4 to 9, is an essential right of passage for those of the Muslim faith, but has historically resulted in thousands of fatalities due to extreme heat and crowd crushes. More than 1.6 million pilgrims attended Mecca during the Hajj this year, the lowest number for 30 years, excluding the COVID-19 pandemic period. While a final death toll is yet to be confirmed, individual countries have reported relatively low numbers of fatalities. According to local reports, 175 Indonesian pilgrims died, along with 10 from Malaysia, 13 from Iran and seven from Nigeria. Death tolls from other nations widely represented at the Hajj, including Pakistan and India, have not yet been released. In 2024, 1,300 people died after temperatures exceeded 51 degrees Celsius. According to Saudi Arabia's health minister Fahad Al-Jalajel, those deaths were caused by "walking long distances under direct sunlight without adequate shelter or comfort". The timing of the Hajj is determined by the Islamic lunar calendar and varies from year to year, but since 2015, it has fallen during Saudi Arabia's hottest months. The drastic drop in deaths this year may indicate that new crowd control measures implemented by the Saudi Arabian government have been successful. The government invested heavily in heat-resilient infrastructure, including air-conditioned shelters, field hospitals, misting systems and portable water stations, and has banned children under 12 from attending. It has also been particularly rigorous in enforcing the Hajj permit system, which limits the number of pilgrims according to country quotas. In 2024, 83 per cent of those who died did not have official permits, which prevented them from accessing cooling systems or health services. Ahead of this year's Hajj, Saudi officials conducted raids and used drone surveillance to identify unregistered pilgrims and crack down on fraudulent travel providers. Billboards, media and mass text alerts warned pilgrims: "No hajj without a permit." On June 1, authorities reported stopping almost 270,000 unregistered pilgrims from entering Mecca. Those who enter the city illegally risk fines, deportation and 10-year bans from the country. In 25 years, Hajj will once again take place during Saudi Arabia's hottest season. And as climate change drives temperatures ever higher, will preventative measures be enough to ensure the safety of millions of pilgrims? Hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam and a holy rite of passage. Every Muslim is expected to make the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once in their lives, if they are physically and financially able. The pilgrimage includes rituals performed in and around the city of Mecca. It begins with walking in circles around the Kaaba, a small black building near the centre of the Great Mosque believed to have been originally built by Prophet Adam and later reconstructed by the Prophet Ibrahim and his son Ismail. The pilgrimage ends with Rami al-Jamarat, or the Stoning of the Devil, a custom in which pilgrims throw pebbles at three walls in the city of Mina in symbolic rejection of the devil. This coincides with Eid al-Adha, an important celebration commemorating sacrifice. Secretary of the Lebanese Muslim Association Gamel Kheir says Hajj is the "single most spiritually significant experience" that many Muslims will have in their lifetime. "Symbolically, it is a reflection of abandoning this world and going to the house of God in order to cleanse oneself of worldly sins," he says. Ahead of Hajj, the Lebanese Muslim Association runs training sessions to prepare pilgrims for the spiritual and physical challenges. Kheir, who has undertaken the pilgrimage twice, says the experience is "incredible". "When you go there, you see the love and the difference in race, skin colour, language," he says. "They're all there in obedience. No-one has any pride there, everyone humbles themselves." Milad Haghani, associate professor of urban resilience and mobility at the University of Melbourne, says Hajj presents a "cocktail of crowd-safety risks". "The scale is massive. It's one of the biggest crowds that ever gathers," he says. "The crowd is spiritually motivated, [which is] a category of crowd that we deem very prone to risk taking." While the Hajj has a history of fatal incidents — mostly crowd crushes — Dr Haghani says climate change marks "a new emerging threat". "Across the world, we are seeing that crowded events are being affected by extreme weather conditions. In Australia, we have festivals that get cancelled," he says. "But when it comes to Hajj, it's very, very rare that it gets cancelled for any reason. It will go ahead regardless." Other aspects of Hajj increase the risks of heat-related injury, too. "The vast majority of the activities do take place in an outdoor environment where you're exposed to the sun directly," Dr Haghani says. "And being in a crowded environment [can] create a microclimate, so inside the crowd could be hotter than the [outside] temperature." Many of those making the pilgrimage do so later in life, especially if they have had to save for years or decades to afford the journey. Hajj packages from Australia typically cost upwards of $10,000. "That crowd tends to be older, compared to a crowd that you get in a typical music festival or a sporting event — that means a higher prevalence of health issues," Dr Haghani says. The pilgrims are also a highly diverse group, hailing from more than 180 countries. "You cannot communicate via a single language in terms of risk communication. That is a major, major barrier," Dr Haghani says. Research suggests that increased educational campaigns in multiple languages, as well as new technologies like smart bracelets for health tracking, could help mitigate the effects of extreme heat during Hajj. A study published last year in the journal, Nature, found that the upper limits of human heat tolerance were breached for a total of 43 hours over the six days of Hajj in 2024. On the hottest day of the pilgrimage, humid heat reached levels considered dangerous even for young and healthy people. Emma Ramsay, an urban climate scientist at Nanyang Technological University Singapore and a co-author of the study, says rising humidity during Hajj poses a serious health risk. "We showed that the heat and humidity during the Hajj crest these upper survival limits … thresholds where our bodies really struggle to cope with the heat physiologically," she says. Though Hajj is set to move out of peak summer next year, it will cycle back to the hot season in 25 years. By that time, global temperatures are predicted to rise 1.5 degrees Celsius, which researchers predict would increase the risk of heat stroke during Hajj fivefold. Dr Ramsay says while Saudi Arabian authorities are experienced in handling extreme heat, "there are limits". "These adaptations are never available to everyone — there are always people left out and people who don't have access," she says. "And these adaptations aren't fail-safe. We see in heat waves, everyone switches on their AC (air-conditioning) and a blackout [occurs], and then people are left really vulnerable. Gamel Kheir says pilgrims in his community are not overly worried about how climate change will affect the Hajj. He believes Saudi Arabian authorities "have mitigated risks the best they can", while cracking down on unauthorised entries. "We do have global warming, clearly, but counter to that is the fact that the authorities have provided a very sheltered environment," he says. "You're not in the desert so much anymore … You've got five-star hotels, you've got water provided constantly, and there's shade everywhere." He says rising temperatures are unlikely to deter faithful Muslims from making the journey. "Do I have concerns? No, because at the end of the day, I think what most people would look at is the religious significance of it over the harshness that they may have to experience."
News.com.au
07-06-2025
- News.com.au
Inside Saudi's hajj-only barbershop, shaving thousands of heads in a day
Near the holy city of Mecca, men in white robes stand quietly in a long queue, waiting for the next important act of their hajj pilgrimage: a haircut. Shaving or cutting the hair comes near the end of the hajj, and marks the moment when pilgrims can change out of the Ihram clothing that signifies purity and devotion. The barbershop, strategically positioned by the Jamarat complex in Mina, where the "stoning of the devil" ritual took place on Friday, opens exclusively for the annual hajj and does a roaring trade. On the pilgrimage's third day, which coincides with the major festival of Eid al-Adha, its barbers typically handle 6,000 customers, said manager Imad Fawzi, an official employed by the hajj organisation. Inside, men in plastic aprons wield electric clippers and cut-throat razors, shearing scalps on an industrial scale for 60 riyals ($13) per head. Despite the rush -- there are so many customers that an usher is required -- Ahmed, a 28-year-old barber from Egypt, is happy in his work. "This is a very simple thing to do, but it brings us so much joy," he says. "We're happy to serve the pilgrims... and to be able to work in a holy place," he said. Fawzi, who grew up in Mecca, called himself a "child of the hajj". "I've been working in hajj since I was seven," he says. - 'This outfit is exhausting' - The once-a-year hairdresser is not the only place for a cut: parts of Mecca and the plain of Mina, on its outskirts, turn into an open-air barbershop at this stage of the hajj. Leaving the Jamarat, a southeast Asian man took out a razor and started scraping the back of his head as he walked. Further down the street, a group of African men were shaving each other with clippers. In Mecca, entire streets are lined with barbershops doing brisk business. While men shave their hair, women trim theirs by a fingertip-length. About 1.6 million pilgrims have gathered in and around Mecca, Islam's holiest city, for this year's hajj, which all Muslims with the means must complete at least once. Outside the Jamarat barbershop, Hani Abdel Samih is looking forward to changing out of the wrap-around skirt and shawl he has been wearing for the past three days. "The stoning of the devil at Jamarat requires great effort and we've been wearing these clothes all day," he said. "We wanted to wear our everyday clothes and be comfortable, so we went to the nearest barbershop we could find after the Jamarat," said the Egyptian. Yet his face was beaming with joy. He said he did not mind the wait for a haircut that bears a special place in his spiritual journey. "I'm excited, of course! Because this is Sunnah from the Prophet, peace be upon him," he said, referring to the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed. "We like (this ritual) and we cannot break it," he said. The hajj retraces the Prophet's last pilgrimage, with rites at Mecca's Grand Mosque and Mount Arafat before "stoning the devil" -- throwing pebbles at three giant walls at Jamarat. aya/th/jsa
News.com.au
06-06-2025
- News.com.au
Muslim pilgrims 'stone the devil' as hajj concludes in Saudi
Pilgrims were set to perform the last major ritual of the hajj -- the "stoning of the devil" -- on Friday, as Muslims around the globe celebrated the beginning of the Eid al-Adha holiday. Starting at dawn, the more than 1.6 million Muslims taking part in the pilgrimage will throw seven stones at each of three concrete walls symbolising the devil in the Mina valley, on the outskirts of the holy city of Mecca. The ritual commemorates Abraham's stoning of the devil at the three spots where it is said Satan tried to dissuade him from obeying God's order to sacrifice his son. This year's hajj saw authorities implementing a range of heat mitigation efforts alongside a wide-ranging crackdown on illicit pilgrims -- resulting in noticeably thinner crowds and a heavy security presence at holy sites in Mecca and surrounding areas. The measures were aimed at preventing a fatal repeat of last year's hajj that saw 1,301 people die in temperatures that hit 51.8 degrees Celsius (125 degrees Fahrenheit). Saudi authorities said a majority of those deaths were among pilgrims who illegally snuck into Mecca and lacked access to accommodation and other services aimed to keep pilgrims safe and protected from the searing desert heat. Hajj permits are allocated to countries on a quota basis and distributed to individuals by a lottery system. But even for those who can secure them, the high costs spur many to attempt the hajj without a permit, even though they risk arrest and deportation if caught. The stoning ritual in the Mina valley was the scene of a fatal stampede in 2015, when 2,300 people were killed in one of the deadliest hajj disasters. Saudi Arabia earns billions of dollars a year from the hajj, and the lesser pilgrimage known as umrah, undertaken at other times of the year. The pilgrimages are also a source of prestige for the Saudi monarch, who is known as the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques of Mecca and Medina. The end of the hajj coincides with the beginning of Eid al-Adha -- an annual feasting holiday marked by the slaughter of an animal -- typically a goat, sheep, cow, bull or camel.
