Rules for a male doctor examining and touching female patients

A question about a doctor working in a profession that requires touching female patients without desire for the purpose of diagnosis, in which the fatwa centre of IslamWeb answered that the default is that a woman treats a woman and a man treats a man, that departing from it is permitted for ordinary medical need and not only for fear of death, because the prohibition of looking and touching during treatment is a prohibition of means that becomes permitted for a preponderant interest, subject to rules during the examination. ¹

The questioner asked about working in a profession that requires touching the opposite sex without desire for the purpose of diagnosis and the like, without a necessity in which death is feared; he said women work in this field, but the doctor cannot refuse to diagnose female patients, whether because of the law in a Western country, or because of the embarrassment in a Muslim country of constantly seeking a female doctor to take his place, or because of the hardship of continually avoiding female patients and the problems and lost benefits that follow. ¹

The centre answered that the default is that a woman treats a woman and a man treats a man, that this default may be departed from only for necessity or need, and that certain fear of death is not always required, ordinary medical need to ward off harm and hardship from the patient being enough; the prohibition of looking at and touching an unrelated woman during treatment belongs to the prohibition of means that block a path to harm, and what is forbidden in that way is permitted for a preponderant interest. ¹ It quoted Ibn Taymiyya in Majmu' al-Fatawa that what is forbidden to block a means is permitted for a preponderant interest, just as looking at a prospective bride is permitted, and travelling with a woman when she might otherwise be lost, as with Umm Kulthum's journey from enemy territory and Aisha's journey when she was left behind with Safwan ibn al-Mu'attal; and Ibn al-Qayyim in Rawdat al-Muhibbin that the sharia forbade looking because it is among the nearest means to the forbidden, and permitted it where there is need, as with everything forbidden as a means. ¹

The centre ruled that if the questioner needs this work and cannot refer the patient to a female doctor because of the hospital's working rules, or if refusing to treat her would bring harm upon him, there is no blame on him in examining and treating female patients, while observing the sharia rules during the examination: using a barrier during examination and touching, not touching the skin directly unless diagnosis through a barrier is impossible, confining looking and touching to the place the diagnosis requires, and avoiding unlawful seclusion with the patient. ¹ It quoted al-Buhuti in Kashshaf al-Qina' that a doctor may look at and touch what need requires him to look at and touch, since it is a place of need, and that this should be in the presence of a mahram or husband, because in seclusion falling into the forbidden cannot be ruled out. ¹

The fatwa centre of IslamWeb published this fatwa on islamweb.net as no. 539305, dated 15 Jumada al-Ula 1448, 26 October 2026. ¹ The museum records this text as a historical document attributed to the body or scholar that issued it; it issues no ruling of its own.