Please do not hit me,’ she pleaded, cowering away from her chair to the wall behind it. Ahmad (not his real name) was taken aback. He was seated in a chair about three spaces away from her in the makeshift waiting room waiting for medical attention. I happened to be the doctor working there, in a hotel in Makkah about two weeks before Hajj was to start. The waiting area was a common space between two rooms in a family suite. The one room was used as my consulting room whilst the other one was occupied with workers for a large group of South African pilgrims. I had just stepped outside into the waiting area with my previous patient and noted about four patients still waiting, with her sitting at the very end. There were two empty chairs between her and Ahmad, with a couple sitting opposite him. It was my custom to call for the next patient myself and I duly did so. It was then that Ahmad got up.