Gender segregation in Islamic law, custom
and traditions refers to the practices and
requirements in Islamic countries and communities
for the separation of men and boys from women
and girls in social and other settings.
There is nothing in the Qur'an and the hadith
that requires gender segregation, There are
diverging opinions among experts in Islamic
theology concerning gender segregation.
On one side of the spectrum, an Islamic theologian
in Canada, Ahmad Kutty, has said segregation
of the sexes is not a requirement in Islam,
as men and women interacted in Muhammed's
time without any partitions.
On the other side of the spectrum, an Islamic
theologian in Saudi Arabia, Abdul-Rahman al-Barrak,
has issued a death warrant in the form of
a fatwa against those who allow the mixing
of the sexes.
== Views ==
There are diverging opinions among experts
in Islamic theology concerning gender segregation.
There have been fatwas which forbid free mixing
between men and women (known as Ikhtilat),
especially when alone.
The objective of the restrictions is to keep
such interaction at a modest level.
Islamic jurisprudent laws have traditionally
ruled that Muslim men and women who are not
immediate relatives may not, for instance,
socialize in order to know each other with
a handshake (for any reason) and any form
of contact which involves physical contact,
and even verbal contact to a certain extent.A
number of westernized Muslim intellectuals
have challenged this view and claim that certain
physical contact is permissible as long as
there is no obscenity, inappropriate touching
(other than a simple handshake), secret meetings
or flirting, according to the general rules
of interaction between the genders.
== Sources ==
The Qur'anic verses which address the interaction
of men and women in the social context include:
Tell the believing men to lower their gaze
and to be mindful of their chastity: this
will be most conducive to their purity – (and,)
verily, Allah is aware of all that they do.
And tell the believing women to lower their
gaze and to be mindful of their chastity,
and not to display their charms beyond what
may be apparent thereof; hence let them draw
their veils over their bosoms and do not show
their adornments except to their husbands
or their fathers or their husbands' fathers
or their sons or their husbands' sons or their
brothers or their brothers' sons or their
sisters' sons or their women or what their
right hands possess or male servants free
of sexual desires or those children who never
knows the private things of women; and do
not stamp their feet so that it may show their
hidden adornments; and repent towards God
collectively O believers so that you may succeed.
O Prophet, tell your wives and your daughters
and the women of the believers to bring down
over themselves [part] of their outer garments.
That is more suitable that they will be known
and not be abused.
And ever is Allah Forgiving and Merciful.
The Prophet Muhammad specifically admonished
the men not to keep their wives from going
to the mosques:
Ibn Umar (Abdullah bin Umar) reported what
is translated as:
The Messenger of God said, "Do not prevent
the maid-servants of God from going to the
mosque."
It is clear from the following hadith that
in some mosques, the women prayed behind the
men and were not separated in a separate room
or even concealed by a curtain or partition
where there wasn't one available (where the
screen is practiced in many mosques today,
and in the past, it is as a precaution to
prevent unnecessary socializing and distraction
during prayers):
Asma' bint Abi Bakr (daughter of Abu Bakr)
said what is translated as:
I heard the Apostle of God say, "One of you
who believes in God and in the Last Day should
not raise her head until the men raise their
heads lest she should see the private parts
of men."
== In Islamic countries ==
=== 
Afghanistan ===
Afghanistan, under Taliban religious leadership,
was characterized by feminist groups and others
as a "gender apartheid" system where women
are segregated from men in public and do not
enjoy legal equality or equal access to employment
or education.
In Islam women have the right to equal access
to employment and education, although their
first priority should be that of the family.
Men too are said to be actively involved in
the child rearing and household chores.
Muhammad helped his wives in the house.In
1997 the Feminist Majority Foundation launched
a "Campaign to Stop Gender Apartheid in Afghanistan",
which urged the United States government and
the United Nations to "do everything in their
power to restore the human rights of Afghan
women and girls."
The campaign included a petition to U.N. Secretary
General Kofi Annan and U.N. Assistant Secretary
General Angela King which stated, in part,
that "We, the undersigned, deplore the Taliban's
brutal decrees and gender apartheid in Afghanistan."In
1998 activists from the National Organization
for Women picketed Unocal's Sugar Land, Texas
office, arguing that its proposed pipeline
through Afghanistan was collaborating with
"gender apartheid".
In a weekly presidential address in November
2001 Laura Bush also accused the Taliban of
practicing "gender apartheid".
The Nation referred to the Taliban's 1997
order that medical services for women be partly
or completely suspended in all hospitals in
the capital city of Kabul as "Health apartheid".According
to the Women's Human Rights Resource Programme
of the University of Toronto Bora Laskin Law
Library "Throughout the duration of Taliban
rule in Afghanistan, the term "Gender Apartheid"
was used by a number of women's rights advocates
to convey the message that the rights violations
experience by Afghan women were in substance
no different than those experienced by blacks
in Apartheid South Africa."
=== Iran ===
When Ruhollah Khomeini called for women to
attend public demonstration and ignore the
night curfew, millions of women who would
otherwise not have dreamed of leaving their
homes without their husbands' and fathers'
permission or presence, took to the streets.
After the Islamic revolution, however, Khomeini
publicly announced his disapproval of mixing
between the sexes.
=== Saudi Arabia ===
In Saudi Arabia, male doctors were not allowed
to treat female patients in the past, unless
there were no female specialists available;
and it was also not permissible for women
to treat men.
This has changed, however, and it is not uncommon
for men and women to visit doctors of the
opposite sex.
=== Mandate Palestine ===
Of the late 1800s and early 1900s European
Jewish immigration to Palestine, Norman Rose
writes that secular "Zionist mores" were "often
at odds with Arab convention, threatening
the customs and moral assumptions that lent
cohesion to a socially conservative, traditional
Palestinian society."
The active political role of the women of
the Yishuv, and their lack of segregation,
was judged as particularly offensive.
== In mosques ==
Some schools of thought claim that Muhammad
preferred women to pray at home rather than
at a mosque.
According to one hadith, a supposed recounting
of an encounter with Muhammad, he said:
I know that you women love to pray with me,
but praying in your inner rooms is better
for you than praying in your house, and praying
in your house is better for you that praying
in your courtyard, and praying in your courtyard
is better for you than praying in your local
mosque, and praying in your local mosque is
better for you than praying in my mosque.
Muhammad is also recorded to have said: "The
best places of prayer for women are the innermost
apartments of their houses".Some schools of
thought interpret these hadith as signs that
women should be encouraged to pray at home
rather than in a mosque.
However, other schools prefer to look at the
context of the sayings, which they suggest
were given at a time when women were in danger
when leaving their homes, and consider mosques
as welcome for women as their homes.
Muhammad did not forbid women from entering
his mosque in Medina.
In fact, he told Muslims "not to prevent their
women from going to mosque when they ask for
permission".However, segregation of sexes
in mosques and prayer spaces is reported in
a hadith in Sahih Muslim, one of the two most
authentic Hadith books in Islam.
It says that the best rows for men are the
first rows, and the worst ones the last ones,
and the best rows for women are the last ones
and the worst ones for them are the first
ones.It is also recorded that Muhammad ordered
that mosques have separate doors for women
and men so that men and women would not be
obliged to go and come through the same door.
He also commanded that after the Isha' evening
prayer, women be allowed to leave the mosque
first so that they would not have to mix with
men.
But it has not been reported that there was
any barrier between men and women in the prophet's
mosque.
After Muhammad's death, many of his followers
began to forbid women under their control
from going to the mosque.
Aisha bint Abi Bakr, a wife of Muhammad, once
said, "If the Prophet had lived now and if
he saw what we see of women today, he would
have forbidden women to go to the mosque even
as the Children of Israel forbade their women."The
second caliph Umar also prohibited women from
attending mosques especially at night because
he feared they may be sexually harassed or
assaulted by men, and he asked them to pray
at home.As Islam spread, it became unusual
for women to worship in mosques because of
male fear of immorality between sexes.Sometimes
a special part of the mosque was railed off
for women.
For example, the governor of Mecca in 870
had ropes tied between the columns to make
a separate place for women.
Many mosques today put the women behind a
barrier or partition or in another room.
Mosques in South and Southeast Asia put men
and women in separate rooms, as the divisions
were built into them centuries ago.
In nearly two-thirds of American mosques,
women pray behind partitions or in separate
areas, not in the main prayer hall; some mosques
do not admit women at all due to the lack
of space and the fact that some prayers, such
as the Friday Jumuʻah, are mandatory for
men but optional for women.
Although there are sections exclusively for
women and children, the Grand Mosque in Mecca
is desegregated.There is a growing women's
movement led by figures such as Asra Nomani
who protest against their second-class status
and facilities.Justifications for segregation,
include the need to avoid distraction during
prayer, although the primary reason cited
is that this was the tradition (sunnah) of
worshipers in the time of Muhammad.
== Criticism ==
British-born Muslim author Ed Husain argues
that rather than keeping sexual desires under
check, gender segregation creates "pent-up
sexual frustration which expressed itself
in the unhealthiest ways," and leads young
people to "see the opposite gender only as
sex objects."
While working in Saudi Arabia for seven months
as an English teacher, the Arabic-speaking
Husain was surprised to find that despite
compulsory gender segregation and full hijab,
Saudi men were much less modest and more predatory
towards women than men in other countries
he had lived.
In Saudi – unlike in Britain, or the more
secular Syrian Arab Republic — students
commonly downloaded hardcore pornography off
the internet in violation of school rules.
Despite the modest dress of his wife – who
"out of respect for local custom, ... wore
the long black abaya and covered her hair
in a black scarf" – she was on two occasions
"accosted by passing Saudi youths from their
cars.
... In supermarkets I only had to be away
from [my wife] for five minutes and Saudi
men would hiss or whisper obscenities as they
walked past."
Discussions with local women at the British
Council indicated that her experience was
far from unique.
== See also ==
Awrah (covering of body parts)
Female labor force in the Muslim world
Gender apartheid
Marriage in Islam
Namus, virtue, used in a gender-specific way
Purdah, a physically separate area for women
Women's mosquesCase studies:
Sultana's Dream, a 1905 Bengali story of reversed
sex segregation
Golden Needle Sewing School
Islamofascism
== References ==
== External links ==
Rasoulallah.net – entries about Women in
Islam
Sultan.org – Islamic portal dealing with
many points related to women in Islam
Women in the Qur’an, hadith, and fiqh/jurisprudence
Behind Closed Doors with a Girl – Shia Perspective
on being alone with a member of the opposite
gender
Shia perspective on shaking hands with opposite
gender and exceptions
