QUESTION:
What do the scholars of the Dīn and muftīs of the Sacred Law state regarding the following issue: How is it for a female to travel alone in a taxi? How is it for a taxi driver to pick up a lone female passenger?
Questioner: Brother from UK
ANSWER:
بسم اللہ الرحمن الرحیم
الجواب بعون الملک الوھاب اللھم ھدایۃ الحق والصواب
It is forbidden for a young woman to be in khalwah (seclusion), alone with a non-mahram man but it is not correct to term a person’s sitting in a taxi as being seclusion. Although my advice would be that a woman should avoid traveling in a taxi alone with a non-mahram driver, a woman’s traveling in a taxi due to some compelling reason is permissible with the condition that the journey is less than 92 km in distance. There is no obstacle in a taxi driver taking a job, i.e. picking up, a lone female passenger with the condition that there is no matter opposing the sharī’ah found in this.
واللہ تعالی اعلم ورسولہ اعلم صلی اللہ علیہ وآلہ وسلم
کتبہ ابو الحسن محمد قاسم ضیاء قادری
Answered by Mufti Qasim Zia al-Qadri
Translated by Ustadh Ibrar Shafi
Read the original Urdu answer here: [Q-ID0819] Is it permissible for a woman to travel alone in a taxi and is it allowed for taxi drivers to pick up lone female passengers?