Q 5. Many Muslim
women travel to distant countries for education or employment. They neither
have a legal Mahram with them nor do they have female acquaintance on
the trip. What is the ruling of the Shariah under this situation?
Is it permissible for them to travel alone?
A 5. In the Sahih of Muslim, there is a report from Sayyidna
Abu Said al-Khudri in which he says that the Holy Prophet (Sallaho
Alaihai Wasallam)
"Let no woman travel for more than three days (being the equivalent
of 48 miles in accordance with legally covered distance) unless that her
husband or her Mahram is with her.'
In the hadith quoted above, women have been clearly forbidden from travelling
alone. The majority of jurists have based their arguments on this very
hadith when they ruled that travelling without a legally recognized Mahram
is not permissible even when intending to perform the obligation of Hajj.
Compared to this, education and employment are objectives not that crucial,
for Muslim women have not been obligated to answer such needs. This is
because the Shariah of Islam has itself placed the responsibility
of a woman's total maintenance on her father before her marriage and on
her husband after the marriage and has not allowed women to leave the
house without some urgent or pressing need. Therefore, this mode of travelling
for education and employment without a Mahram is not permissible.
However, in the case of a woman who has neither husband nor father, nor
does she have some other relative who could support her financially, nor
does she have enough funds to take care of her needs, it would, under
this situation, become permissible for her to go out of the house under
legal hijab and earn her living to the limit of her need. Now, when this
purpose can be easily achieved while living in one's own country or city,
there is no need to travel to a non-Muslim land. (Please see: Mughni
l'ibn Qadamah, p. 190, v. 3)
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