The ruling on a woman in ihram wearing the niqab or a face covering with an opening for vision
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
Peace be upon you. Honorable Shaykh, if a woman covers her face with a loose shaylah, she cannot see because of her weak eyesight. Is she permitted to wear the niqab while in ihram? And is there any sin on her if she wears it?
Answer:
She should not wear the niqab. She should wear the khimar with an opening in it, which is not a niqab. This is because the niqab is a specific item made for the face, whereas the khimar is a covering that indicates the face. If it covers the face, she makes an opening in it so she can see through it, and there is no harm in that. It is not called a niqab, because the niqab is a specific item made for the face; it is called the burqu'.
Peace be upon you. Honorable Shaykh, if a woman covers her face with a loose shaylah, she cannot see because of her weak eyesight. Is she permitted to wear the niqab while in ihram? And is there any sin on her if she wears it?
Answer:
She should not wear the niqab. She should wear the khimar with an opening in it, which is not a niqab. This is because the niqab is a specific item made for the face, whereas the khimar is a covering that indicates the face. If it covers the face, she makes an opening in it so she can see through it, and there is no harm in that. It is not called a niqab, because the niqab is a specific item made for the face; it is called the burqu'.
Source
فتاوى الحج ١٤١٠ هـ - ١٥ — archive.org (13:09)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.