Can a female study physiotherapy?
| Fatwa #919 | Category: Miscellaneous | Country: Zambia | Date: 8th March 2024 |
| Fatwa #919 | Date: 8th March 2024 |
| Category: Miscellaneous | |
| Country: Zambia | |
Question
Asalamualaikum warahmatuallahi wabarakaatuh.. Hope all is well.. I wanted to Inquire about something…I am a girl who started going to university this year and I decided to pursue physiotherapy as my future career.. But according what I found out I might have boys in my class going further.. And physiotherapy deals with touching patients and works with muscles and nerves… I wanted to know if I pursue this career and the professors tell me to practice what I’ve learnt on my (male) classmates, and I have to touch them without gloves. Can I pursue this career as a female?? And if I touch my male class mates do I get ghuna for zina??
Answer
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
As-salāmu ‘alaykum wa-rahmatullāhi wa-barakātuh.
Sister in Islam,
It is encouraging to note that you are conscious of your duties as a Muslim woman. May Almighty Allah keep you steadfast on His Deen. Aameen.
Almighty Allah says in the Holy Quran:
وَقَرْنَ فِي بُيُوتِكُنَّ وَلَا تَبَرَّجْنَ تَبَرُّجَ الْجَاهِلِيَّةِ الْأُولَى (الأحزاب – 33)
Translation: “(O women) Stay in your home and do not display your finery like the displaying of the days of ignorance of yore)
وَقُلْ لِلْمُؤْمِنَاتِ يَغْضُضْنَ مِنْ أَبْصَارِهِنَّ وَيَحْفَظْنَ فُرُوجَهُنَّ وَلَا يُبْدِينَ زِينَتَهُنَّ إِلَّا مَا ظَهَرَ مِنْهَا وَلْيَضْرِبْنَ بِخُمُرِهِنَّ عَلَى جُيُوبِهِنَّ (النور-31)
Translation: “And say to the believing women that they must lower their gazes and guard their private parts, and must not expose their adornment (i.e. places of beauty)”
The emphasis Almighty Allah has placed on observing hijab and protecting oneself from an environment where there is potential for evil is abundantly clear from the above cited verses. As a default, Shari’ah discourages women from venturing out into the public sphere, let alone find themselves in situations where they mingle with the opposite gender.
A co-ed university will make it extremely challenging to abide by the Islamic junction of not interacting with the opposite gender without valid need.
You state that you still intend to begin your studies, as such, our advice will be that you attempt correspondence learning where the intermingling with the opposite gender will be limited. If this is not feasible, you may reconsider your field of study.
The scholars have stated that touching a non-mahram is only permissible when one is treating a patient, and in that case too, the rest of the awrah must remain concealed. Assuming you are forced into the university environment as you have described, you will be forced to practice on non-mahrams, therefore, it is necessary that you try to get some approval from the relevant school authority which will allow you to confine yourself to practice with females.[1]
And Allah Ta’āla Knows Best
Mufti Bilal Pandor
Concurred by
Mufti Nabeel Valli
Darul Iftaa Mahmudiyyah
Lusaka, Zambia