and these Burda catalogues are now in women’s hands, for a woman is weak—deficient in intellect and in religious commitment, as the Messenger ﷺ described her: “I have not seen anyone with less reason and religion who can steal away the mind of a resolute man more than one of you.” She is therefore easily taken in and deceived by such outward shows.

Many men, sadly, are men only in their clothes; in reality they are women. Their affairs are run by women, and the women have become the overseers of the men—opposite to what Allah has ordained: “Men are in charge of women” (al-Nisāʾ 4:34). Yet today, among many people, it is the women who are in charge of the men: she directs the man, wears whatever she pleases, does whatever she pleases, and pays no attention to her husband or her guardian.

For this reason guardians must prevent the circulation of these magazines that bring us fashions so far removed from Islamic dress. In the Prophet’s era, when women left for the marketplace, they wore long garments so that even their feet would not show.

Inside the home as well—Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah (may Allah have mercy on him) notes—that in the Prophet’s time a woman’s clothing covered her from the palm of the hand to the ankle, even while she was at home with no one present but other women or her unmarriageable male relatives; from palm to ankle she remained fully covered.

From this we can see the error of those who imagine, on the basis of the Prophet’s statement “A woman is not to look at the private parts of another woman,” that a woman may limit her clothing to garments that cover only