Tunisian Woman Sara Haba Becomes First Lady To Reach Makkah on Bicycle

Sara Haba — Tunisian woman — has become the first female to reach the holy city Makkah on a bicycle. According to reports, Sara Haba completed her journey in 53 days.

Informing people about her journey, she took to Instagram and shared that initially she was afraid that she would not be allowed to enter the city as she was travelling alone but she did not let her fear prevail.

Notably, as per Saudi Law, any woman under the age of 45 who wants to undergo the religious pilgrimage of hajj to Mecca needs a visa and must travel with a mahram — a male “guardian”. Sara Haba has not specified whether she was undertaking Hajj or not.

Haba shared on Instagram, “I was afraid to be stopped at any point. I didn’t know if my body will follow my will and accept all that I was imposing to it.”

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Where is Merzoua? . . Few months ago, we were joking in @riverside_decathlon & Cesar – @biking_ginger – challenged me to make a full revolution with the bicycle. The prototype made it bravely to the esplanade in Mecca but wasn't allowed to go inside even though she is Merzoua. That being said I've made seven full revolution with the meter. ? . . Zero flat tire and only one chain broken! ?@riverside_decathlon . And the best watch ever from @arabiancorner made it to el Haram and had experienced the power of revolution. . . #cyclingtomecca #roadtomecca #sacredfootstep #cyclingsaudiarabia #cyclingmiddleeast #welcometoarabia #welcometosaudiarabia #mecca #lamecque #omra #cyclingtrip #cyclingegypt #cyclingsudan

A post shared by Rahala (@sara.rahala) on Jan 15, 2020 at 11:45am PST

There are multiple photos of Sara Haba travelling to Makkah have gone viral on the internet. She emphasized on #CyclingToMakkah hashtag for her posts. She opted for the deserts of Sudan and Egypt as her travel route.

Haba stated that she formed her cycle e Merzouga which means “grace with blessing” in Maghrebi Arabic. According to reports, she received thousands of request asking her to pray for them at the Holy place, Makkah.

Speaking to a source, Haba quoted as saying, “The distance and difficulty were insignificant in Saudi Arabia as compared to what she went through. Haba was very tense before reaching Makkah as she didn’t know if she would be allowed to enter the sacred city, cycling all by herself.”

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It's all about symbolic . Merzoua made it to Tunis village . I changed my route in order to pass by Tunis village. Unfortunately I couldn't begin this journey from Tunisia. That's why I decided to pick Tunis village as the first stop. A lot of people keep asking me why this village is named Tunis. Apparently Tunis was where the Tunisians pilgrims coming from Libya were stopping on their road to Hajj. Let's do some researches and collect more information about it. . #tunis #tunisvillage #africanmosque #cyclingegypt #cyclingtomecca #sacredfootstep #pilgrim #roadtomecca #camping #bicycle #riverside_decathlon #travelbike #fayoum #egypt #africa

A post shared by Rahala (@sara.rahala) on Nov 6, 2019 at 5:15am PST

Haba was still travelling when her pictures went viral on social media. There are hundreds of people have gone all the way to meet her when she was on her way to Makkah.

Thanking them she wrote online, “A special special special thanks to each person who has crossed my way, smiled to me, shown me the way, filled my bottles with water, offered me a fruit or a jabana, shared their house with me, presented me to their family and friends, cycled with me even for 10km, cried with me and make me part of their lives.”

She added, “I didn’t expect anything of all what happened.” Adding on she further said, “I kept making duas for all of you, holding the list of names tightly on my hands, while turning and turning in the crowd. But it will never be enough. Hope that life will give me the opportunity to give this back to the universe.”

Sara concluded, “I won’t have made it without each one of you. You made it guys.”