between the navel and the knee. They want the woman to go out with her whole body exposed except for that strip between the navel and the knee—who ever said such a thing?!

The Messenger ﷺ is speaking to the onlooker, not to the one who is dressed, when he says: “A woman must not look at the private parts of another woman.” The situation is that the wearer may have raised her garment to relieve herself, whether to urinate or defecate, so he forbade looking at her ‘awrah. The Prophet ﷺ never told a woman that she may wear only what covers the area between the navel and the knee. Anyone who thinks this is merely channeling satanic whisperings. Let us observe instead how the women in the Prophet’s time actually dressed.

We must therefore correct this misconception, repeated by every woman who lacks proper understanding and has no regard for the earlier generations. We say to her: Do you suppose that Islamic law permits a woman to appear among other women wearing nothing but a pair of short trousers that cover only the area between the navel and the knee? Who has ever claimed that this is Islamic law? Who has ever claimed that this is the meaning of the Prophet’s words, “A woman must not look at the private parts of another woman”? Who said that?!

The Prophet ﷺ also said: “Nor should a man look at the private parts of another man,” yet during his time men wore a cloak (ridāʾ) and a waist-wrapper (izār), or they wore a shirt (qamīṣ); they did not go about in an izār alone.

Consider even the poor man who asked the Prophet ﷺ to marry him to the woman who had offered herself to the Prophet—whom the Prophet had declined. The man said, “Marry her to me.” The Prophet ﷺ asked, “What do you have for a dowry?” He replied, “My izār, for I am destitute.” How could an izār serve as a woman’s dowry if—