What is the ruling on watching women on television?
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
He asks: Does watching women on satellite channels or on the internet count as a sin? And what is your advice?
Answer:
He was watching them for lust. Yes. This is sinful. It involves failing to lower the gaze. As for watching them without lust, this is also not permissible, because it is not permissible to look at a woman’s face. This is affirming what is wrong. This is the least of it: affirming what is wrong. Yes. But if it is for lust, the matter is more severe. Yes.
He asks: Does watching women on satellite channels or on the internet count as a sin? And what is your advice?
Answer:
He was watching them for lust. Yes. This is sinful. It involves failing to lower the gaze. As for watching them without lust, this is also not permissible, because it is not permissible to look at a woman’s face. This is affirming what is wrong. This is the least of it: affirming what is wrong. Yes. But if it is for lust, the matter is more severe. Yes.
Source
قناة «العلامة الدكتور صالح الفوزان»، ما حكم مشاهدة النساء في التلفاز؟ لمعالي الشيخ صالح الفوزان — youtube.com
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.