A leading Saudi academic says women can study Shariah and become Islamic legal experts, but they cannot become members of the Board of Senior Ulema and issue edicts because they are different “physically” from men. This is the view of Dr. Abdullah Bin Abdul Rahman Al-Shithri, Deputy President of Imam Muhammad Bin Saud Islamic University and Professor of Tafseer Al-Qur'an. In a statement to Okaz recently, Al-Shithri said: “I have found women who have excelled in the Shariah sciences over men, but the aim to attain this knowledge should not be for her to gain membership of the Board of Senior Ulema.” He said the knowledge a woman gains should only be for her to become a religious scholar in “women's circles in society”, especially since women need female experts to “teach them on matters concerning their religion”. “This is because a woman talks easily to another woman than to a man. She is in a better position to understand women's needs and their special nature more than a man.” “However, these characteristics do not qualify a woman to become a member of the Board of Senior Ulema. This is because she is different from a man physically and she has special circumstances, like menstruation and delivery, among other [things], that makes her participation with men in issuing edicts (fatwas) impossible.” Al-Shithri said anyone who considers the history of Islam will find that men have been responsible for Shariah matters. He said there was no objection to having women with wide religious knowledge, including jurisprudence (Fiqh) and Shariah, and being able to answer questions on these matters. This was what the mothers of the believers – Ayesha, Khadija and Umm Salamah (may Allah be pleased with them) – used to do. But the mothers of the believers were different from all other women because they gained knowledge on the Shariah sciences directly from the teacher of mankind, Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), he said.
