The Effect of Women Going Out to the Markets on Their Fasting

Question:
Also, it is said that it is pleasing to many women in the blessed nights of Ramadan to go out to the markets frequently, while they are negligent in the matter of hijab and wear the abaya on their shoulders. Does this affect their fasting or diminish its reward?

Answer:
This is one of the greatest calamities. This month is the month of good and the month of blessings, the month of worship. Yet Satan gains control over the Muslims, men and women, and their concern becomes wandering in the markets, sitting in gatherings, laughing, and joking. They spend their time in these matters, as if Ramadan were a month of leisure and relaxation. Ramadan is a month of worship, a month of seriousness and striving, and a month of resolve.
It is not a month of wasting time, a month of heedlessness, a month of desires, or a month of wandering in the markets. This is a waste of the noble and honorable times of Ramadan. And if added to that are the prohibitions of women’s tabarruj (display of adornment), their use of perfume, and their uncovering of their faces or hands, or displaying some of their adornment in the markets and in front of men, these are forbidden acts whose sin is more severe in Ramadan than in other times. Yes.