Seclusion of women

It has already been shown that women are not forbidden to take part in any activity when necessary, nor is there any injunction in the Holy Qur’ān or the Ḥadīth shutting them up within the four walls of their houses. On the other hand, the Holy Book speaks of a Muslim society in which man and woman had often to meet each other: “Say to the believing men that they lower their gaze and restrain their sexual passions. That is purer for them … And say to the believing women that they lower their gaze and restrain their sexual passions and not display their adornment except what appears thereof ” (24:30, 31). A later revelation supports the same conclusion: “O Prophet, tell thy wives and thy daughters and the women of the believers to let down upon themselves their over-garments. This is more proper, so that they may be known, and not be given trouble” (33:59). If women did not go out of their houses, where was the necessity of asking them to wear a distinctive dress, and where was the occasion for their being troubled? According to Ḥadīth, the Holy Prophet is reported to have said to women: “It is permitted to you to go out for your needs (ḥājah)” (Bu. 4:13; 67:116). The injunction to the Holy Prophet’s wives in a verse of the Holy Qur’ān does not mean that they were not to go out for their needs. The verse in question runs thus: “And stay in your houses and display not your beauty like the displaying of the ignorance of yore’’ (33:33). This is evidently an injunction against the parading of finery and display of beauty and thus exciting the uncontrolled passions of youth. It cannot and does not mean, as explained by the Holy Prophet himself that the women are not allowed to go out for their needs. Display of beauty and going out for one’s need are quite different things. There is, therefore, no seclusion in Islām in the sense that women are shut up within their houses for they are as free to move about for their needs, or the transaction of their affairs, as men. Only their needs outside the home are generally fewer, and their duties are to a large extent limited to the home.