What is the ruling on a woman cutting her hair?

The questioner : What is the ruling regarding a woman cutting her hair?

The Shaykh : What has been reported, indeed in *Sahih Muslim*: However, it should be noted in this that the woman’s intention should not be to imitate men or the sinful women. Just as we say regarding young men who lengthen the hair on their heads, they must not intentionally do so to follow the fashion of the present age, but rather they do so as a dispensation, based on his (peace be upon him) saying: If the factor of imitation enters in, the ruling changes, shifting from permissibility and lawfulness to being disliked or forbidden.