Nigerian officials are desperately seeking the release of up to 1,000 Muslim women held in a Saudi airport jail for traveling without approved chaperones.
The women, some of whom have been held since Sunday, had been enroute to make the Muslim Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.
Nigeria's ambassador to Saudi Arabia told the BBC the authorities were stopping women under the age of 35.
Diplomats pressed into service from Abuja were stumped by the development as there had been an understanding in the past that Nigerian women were exempt from travelling with a male relative - a requirement for women on the Hajj.
A longstanding agreement between National Hajj Commission of Nigeria and the Saudi authorities allows visas to be issued for Nigerian women going to Mecca as long as they are accompanied by their local Hajj committee officials.
But since Sunday, hundreds of Nigerian women have been stopped at the airports in Jeddah and Medina.
Nigeria's ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Abubakar Shehu Bunu, said he made a formal protest to the foreign affairs office in the capital, Riyadh, today, Wednesday.
"They are stopping women particularly between the ages of 25 and 35 without a male relative. Those over 45 are not a concern to the Saudi authorities," he told the BBC's Hausa Service.
One woman told the BBC her group were being held in Jeddah not because they were travelling without male relatives but because the surnames on their passports did not correspond with those of their husbands.
"Our husbands' names are different from our surnames and they won't allow that," Bilkisu Nasidi, who travelled from the northern Nigerian city of Katsina, told the BBC's Focus on Africa program.
She said the hundreds of women were sleeping on the floor, did not have their belongings and were sharing four toilets at the King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah.
It is a common practice for Muslim women in Nigeria not to take their husband's name.
More than two million Muslims are due to converge on Mecca for this year's Hajj, which is set to culminate over a four-day period somewhere between October 24-29 depending on lunar observations.
Posted: at 26-09-2012 05:53 PM (12 years ago) | Gistmaniac
nametalkam at 26-09-2012 06:24 PM (12 years ago) (m)
I wan travel, I wan travel.
Ahlaja buy me diamonds come from mecca, e be like i see my aunty mairo(wa) for that line o
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Posted: at 26-09-2012 06:24 PM (12 years ago) | Addicted Hero
Amor1444 at 26-09-2012 06:34 PM (12 years ago) (m)
Very funny indeed! Abeg hold them there till after the hajj, there mission in that your evil land is everything but noble & you are smarter than them this time. Bad market, 25yrs -35yrs single women, the correct age bracket for Ashawo work una go f.u.c.k una sef brain washed slaves of paedophile mohammed.
Posted: at 26-09-2012 06:34 PM (12 years ago) | Upcoming
NDI ABOKI BRING THEM BACK OR PROVIDE THE WHATEVA THEY NEED TO GET IN:SEE AS THEM DEY SEF:GOING TO HOLY LAND BUT THEIR HEART IS AS BLACK AS COAL:I WOUNDER WHAT THEY EVEN GO THERE TO LEARN:WICKEDNESS
Posted: at 26-09-2012 10:02 PM (12 years ago) | Gistmaniac
razzy2011 at 26-09-2012 10:20 PM (12 years ago) (m)
Quote from: Amor1444 on 26-09-2012 06:34 PM
Very funny indeed! Abeg hold them there till after the hajj, there mission in that your evil land is everything but noble & you are smarter than them this time. Bad market, 25yrs -35yrs single women, the correct age bracket for Ashawo work una go f.u.c.k una sef brain washed slaves of paedophile mohammed.
If u dont knw wht 2 say, y dont u shut-up instead of makin noise
Posted: at 26-09-2012 10:20 PM (12 years ago) | Upcoming
FinlandGuy at 26-09-2012 10:31 PM (12 years ago) (m)
Just look at dem,looking frustrated just like their criminal mohammed. Even their so called holy land rejected them.What a shame islam.
Every day by day,chronic womanizer mohammed and evil koran keep deceiving this people and it is a pity that ajanni,cadnare,aisha,small jim are busy following them.
Posted: at 26-09-2012 10:31 PM (12 years ago) | Gistmaniac
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