Can I Get an Assistant for Bikini Hair Removal?
Shafi'i Fiqh
Answered by Ustadha Shazia Ahmad
Question
As a plus-size woman struggling with bikini hair removal, am I permitted to have assistance from someone else due to these challenges, especially as I’m preparing for marriage?
Answer
Thank you for your question. No, you would not be given the exception to expose your nakedness for this reason.
Nakedness
It says in the Reliance of the Traveller:
m2.8 (n: The following rulings from the Hanafi School have been added here as a dispensation (dis: c6.3).) (Ahmad Quduri:)
(2) A man may look at the whole body of another man except for what is between the navel and (A: including) the knees (A: as the knees are considered nakedness by Hanafis. though not by Shafi‘is).
(3) A woman may look at the parts of a man that another man is permitted to look at.
(4) A woman may look at the parts of another woman that a man is permitted to look at of another man. (al-Lubab fi sharh al-Kitab (y88), 4.162-63) [The Hanafi rulings were mentioned as a dispensation.]
Tips
I recommend that you get creative, and manage it alone. Try using a mirror, and use something that you can’t hurt or cut yourself with. With practice, it will get easier in sha Allah.
Please see these links as well:
- A Detailed Exposition of the Fiqh of Covering One’s Nakedness (awra)
- Can a Muslim Woman Go to a Salon To Get a Bikini Wax?
- Is It Permissible to Have Someone Else Wax Your Body? (Shafi’i)
May Allah give you the best of this world and the next.
[Ustadha] Shazia Ahmad
Checked and Approved by Shaykh Irshaad Sedick
Ustadha Shazia Ahmad lived in Damascus, Syria, for two years, where she studied aqidah, fiqh, tajweed, tafsir, and Arabic. She then attended the University of Texas at Austin and completed her Master’s in Arabic. Afterward, she moved to Amman, Jordan, where she studied fiqh, Arabic, and other sciences. She later moved back to Mississauga, Canada, where she lives with her family.
