QUESTION:

What do the scholars of the Din and muftis of the Sacred Law state regarding the following issue: How is it for women to attend a females only swimming session?

Questioner: Sister from UK

ANSWER:

بسم اللہ الرحمن الرحیم
الجواب بعون الملک الوھاب اللھم ھدایۃ الحق والصواب

Women are to refrain from also going to a females only swimming pool, etc. because it is usually the case that women bathe there (having their sitr) uncovered, causing one to become occupied in sin with one’s eyes [in looking unlawfully]. This is because just how a male cannot look at the private parts of another male, rather, the veiled area being from the navel up to and including the knees; looking at or showing this is not permissible, likewise, females have the same veiling with other females i.e. a woman cannot look at the area from the navel up to and including the knees of another woman.

Just as it is stated in the authentic book of Hanafī Fiqh al-Hidāyah,

وَتَنْظُرُ الْمَرْأَةُ مِنْ الْمَرْأَةِ إلَى مَا يَجُوزُ لِلرَّجُلِ أَنْ يَنْظُرَ إلَيْهِ مِنْ الرَّجُلِ”

“A female can look at those body parts of another female which a male is permitted to look at that of another male.”

[al-Hidāyah, vol 2, pg 370]

The author of al-Hidāyah has actually regarded this quote as most correct, just as he has stated,

“وَالْأَوَّلُ أَصَحُّ”

Likewise, it is stated in Bahār-e-Sharī’at that the ruling of a female looking at another female is the same as that of a male looking at a male. In other words, she cannot look at another female from below the waist up to [and including] the knees. Though, she is allowed to look at the rest of another female’s body, on the condition that there is no danger of lustful feelings.

[Bahār-e-Sharī’at, vol 3, part 16, pg 443]

Whereas, this cannot be taken into account in a swimming pool area, thus one is to refrain from this. Yes, if there is such a swimming pool in which there are precautions in place with regards to veiling, then going there is permissible, and swimming there having veiled oneself according to Sharī’ah would also be permissible.

واللہ تعالی اعلم ورسولہ اعلم صلی اللہ علیہ وآلہ وسلم
کتبہ ابو الحسن محمد قاسم ضیاء قادری

Answered by Mufti Qasim Zia al-Qadiri
Translated by Haider Ali

Read the original Urdu answer here: [Q-ID0711] Is it permissible for women to attend a females only swimming session?

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