Can Women Join Air Force?

July 10, 2024

2 min read 2 min

Question

I have a question regarding women pilots in PAF (Pakistan Air Force). There are few women serving in PAF and I wanted to know that is it acceptable according to Shariah? Some people raise question that it is not good since an unmarried women should not work in an area which is dominated by men and she should focus in other fields like nursing, hospitals and teaching only where they are actually required. Even I agree that for girl students the teacher should be a women but what if a women is interested to work in PAF? People even raise question that women in PAF don’t completely follow shariah (meaning that most of them don’t cover their heads and don’t wear Islamic code of dressing although I don’t see any sensitive part of their body really showing when they wear PAF uniform. Please throw some light on this.

Answer

I do not understand why working in an institution necessarily means violating the shari’ah. If the women working in this particular institute do not follow the shari’ah then we should say that they should follow the shari’ah but we cannot say that they should not join the organization unless the organization prohibits them following the religious obligations.

If a woman living in perfect Islamic environment does not follow the basic requirements of the Shari’ah that does not mean that the environment is responsible. We can only talk of improving the religiosity, religious consciousness and God-consciousness of women working in all types of institution. We can also encourage women to join organizations which provide them more religion friendly environment but we cannot say that it is haram to join an organization where the workers are not mindful of their religious obligations. It is possible that women of sound religious and moral knowledge improve the environment by their conduct. We must also consider the fact that unless we are able to provide the women with more suitable profession and guarantee their financial well being we should not stop them from joining other organizations which may not have to offer perfect environment.

Answered by: Tariq Mahmood Hashmi

Date: 2015-03-05