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Ruling on Girls Studying at Coed Schools of Medicine

Answered as per Maliki Fiqh by BinBayyah.net

Obviously, there is a real need to have Muslim hijabi female doctors, as none of us likes male physicians to physically examine our wives, mothers, or sisters in childbirth or any other cases that require exposing their private parts. Actually, I can never feel easy about that. The problem is that most schools of medicine in Muslim countries are coed. Should we let our girls join such schools if there are no female-only alternatives? And what to do if we want female doctors for female patients as well as male doctors for male patients? Should we prevent girls from studying medicine if non-coed schools are not available or are distant from where they live?

All praise is due to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah.

Dear questioner! Always seek perfection or, at least, near perfection. Answer to this question depends on the person and environment. If university systems are well designed to ensure safety and solemnity and to prevent male-female privacy and immorality in both student-student and student-teacher relationships, then there is no impediment to sending girls to such educational institutions, in view of the pressing need to have female nurses, obstetricians, and gynecologists.

If, otherwise, corruption is prevalent, it is a totally different case. What really matters in Shari`ah is the mainstream. If only a few number of disorderly incidents or students is reported at a given university, this should not raise much concern. As jurists maintain, prevalence outweighs infrequency. And Allah knows best.


This answer was collected from BinBayyah.net, which contains of feature articles and fatawa by world renowned ‘Alim, Sheikh Abdullah Bin Bayyah, from Mauritania.

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