(23 May 2025)
SYRIA HAJJ PILGRIMS DEPARTURE
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
LENGTH: 4:14
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Damascus, Syria – 23 May 2025
1. Various of pilgrims getting ready to get on bus, saying goodbye to their family members
2. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Mohammad Sabbagh, organizer at Almamoun Pilgrimage Group:
"The first advantage we have this year is that we’re flying out of Damascus International Airport. Pilgrims used to suffer from the hardships of travel. For example, we used to have to go to Beirut airport 10 hours in advance. We would wait there and travel for another six hours, then get to Jeddah airport. It used to take Syrian pilgrims about 24 hours to finally arrive in Mecca and get to rest."
3. Passengers standing by the bus
4. Man loading suitcases onto bus
5. Passengers with their suitcases
6. Bus driving away
7. Dabbagh reciting prayers for the pilgrims on the bus to repeat
8. Various of pilgrims reciting prayers
9. Bus driver
10. Various of pilgrims seated
11. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Salwa Abbas, pilgrim:
"I am hoping that the Hajj this year in 2025 will bring a year of freedom, a year of dignity for Syrian pilgrims, and a year of being valued globally, that we feel valued when we go to Saudi Arabia instead of feeling humiliated. We were humiliated in our country and abroad."
12. Various of pilgrims by the departure gate at Damascus International Airport
13. Various of pilgrims saying goodbye to their family members
14. Various of pilgrims inside the airport, getting ready to board flights
15. Pilgrim saying goodbye to others before leaving
16. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Ihsan Yaseen, pilgrim:
"There’s a huge difference between the time under the new president and the past. It was an unjust government, honestly. The Hajj pilgrimage used to be only for people who have money or people who give bribes. This year, there are no bribes and you feel like they (the organizers) are working with sincerity."
17. Departures sign at the airport
18. Pilgrims inside airport
19. Exterior of airport
STORYLINE:
Many Syrian pilgrims on their way to perform the annual Hajj pilgrimage this year are grateful they can finally fly to Saudi Arabia directly from Damascus in a stark difference to previous years.
This is the first time that Syrians are performing the Hajj pilgrimage after the fall of former President Bashar Assad in early December.
Syria was ostracized by Arab governments over Assad’s brutal crackdown on protesters in a 2011 uprising that descended into civil war, so Syrian pilgrims over the past decade were forced to either travel to Lebanon or Turkey then fly to Saudi Arabia for Hajj.
It was a journey that took about 24 hours, before the pilgrims could finally get some rest, said Muhammad Sabbagh who organizes Hajj tours for Syrian pilgrims.
This is his first year he is operating inside Syria after working from Istanbul for years.
Sabbagh gathered men and women who were saying goodbye to their families on Friday and gave them a briefing on the Hajj before they boarded buses heading to Damascus airport.
He recited prayers on the bus for the pilgrims to repeat as they embarked on what many Muslims view as the journey of a lifetime.
Hajj is the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia that is required once in a lifetime of every Muslim who can afford it and is physically able to make it.
For pilgrims, performing Hajj fulfills a religious obligation but it’s also a deeply spiritual experience.
AP video shot by Abd Al-Rahman Shaheen
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