Answered by Shaykh Amjad Rasheed
Allah Most High says, “As for women past child-bearing, who have no hope of marriage, it is no sin for them if they discard their garments without displaying adornment. But to refrain is better for them. Allah is All-Hearing, All-Knowing.” (Sura al-Nur, 60) Does this mean that it is permissible for a woman of old age not to wear a head-covering (khimar) or a loose outer garment (jilbab) in front of men who are not unmarriageable relatives?
The verse does not mean that it is permissible for an old woman to reveal her hair, for Imam Abu Bakr ibn al-‘Arabi says in Ahkam al-Qur’an:
There is no disagreement that the hair of an old woman is nakedness that is not permissible for foreign men [h. meaning those who are not unmarriageable kin] to look at, just like the hair of a young woman. [h. There is also no disagreement] that if she prays without covering her head, she is just like a young woman in that her prayer will be invalid. It is therefore inadmissible for [h. the verse] to imply [h. the permissibility] of removing the head-covering in from of a foreign man.
As for an old woman uncovering her face and hands, the relied-upon position in our school is that her ruling is like the ruling of a young woman, and it is therefore impermissible for her to uncover any part of her body–even the face and hands–and it is impermissible for men who are not unmarriageable kin to look at them [h. i.e., the face and hands]. However, Imam al-Rawyani–one of our great imams–inferred from this verse that it is permissible for men who are not unmarriageable kin to look at the face and hand of an old woman. This position was adopted by Imam al-Adhru’i and it is permissible to follow these two scholars on this issue.
– Amjad Rasheed
[Translated by Sidi Hamza Karamali]