, for, given the gravity of the matter, a woman is categorically forbidden to travel without a mahram. Yet some people today are lax about this ruling, especially with air travel and other forms of mass transportation. Such negligence constitutes a failure to obey Allah and His Messenger. It is not lawful for a woman to travel without a mahram, even by airplane. Even if one mahram accompanies her until she boards the plane and another meets her in the destination country, that still does not make the journey permissible. However much safety we may presume, who will sit beside her? On today’s flights men and women are not separated; you will often find a woman seated next to an unrelated man. For that reason we say it is forbidden for a woman to travel without a mahram—whether by plane, car, camel, donkey, or even on foot. All of that is prohibited.

A mahram is a man whom she is permanently forbidden to marry—whether the prohibition arises through blood ties, marriage relations, or breastfeeding. Allah has clarified this in the Noble Quran: “Prohibited to you (for marriage) are your mothers, your daughters, your sisters, your paternal aunts, your maternal aunts, the daughters of your brother, and the daughters of your sister”—these are seven categories based on lineage—“and your nursing mothers and your foster sisters” (Q 4:23).