A small town with no female gynecologist, only male doctors: is it permissible for a woman to go to the doctor?

The questioner: Shaykh, if you please, there is a question, is that possible?

The Shaykh: Go ahead.

The questioner: May Allah reward you with good. As for us, we are now in this blessed session, if Allah wills.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner: We benefited greatly, especially since we learned that the brother is a doctor.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner: So we ask Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) to grant him healing.

The Shaykh: Amen.

The questioner: And to all Muslims.

The Shaykh : Amen, if Allah wills.

The questioner: This is the first point. The second point is that, as it seems to me from the doctor’s words, may Allah reward him with good, he is a gynecologist, and Allah knows best.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner: We are there in al-Qawirah, do you know, Shaykh? It is a village, not a large town or city.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner: There is no female gynecologist there.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner: Especially for childbirth.

The Shaykh: Yes.

The questioner: And there is a doctor at the health facility, as they say, or at the health center, and a...

The Shaykh: gynecologist.

The questioner: gynecologist, but not a specialist. So, is it permissible now, given that there is no female doctor there, for the woman to go to this male doctor?

The Shaykh: No, this falls under the rule, may Allah bless you, that "necessities permit the prohibited," because we either say it is permissible on the basis of necessity, or we say it is not permissible. If we say it is not permissible, what does this woman do? I mean, let us suppose a scenario—of course, this doctor is better at imaging than I am—her labor becomes difficult; it was not a natural delivery; her labor becomes difficult, and there is no female gynecologist, as you said. So she, or her husband, or her father, is faced with two options: either they surrender to this reality and let her die because of the difficult labor, or they take her to the doctor who specializes in women, but he is a man, not a woman. And here, as the saying goes, "when the matter revolves between two evils, choose the lesser of the two evils." The lesser evil is for this woman whose labor is difficult to go to the male doctor, because there is no female doctor there. This is an example of hundreds, if not thousands, of cases that are treated by the rule: "and necessities permit the prohibited." But so that the rule does not remain unrestricted and without a standard, the scholars said: "necessity is measured by its extent." What does "measured by its extent" mean? It means: this patient, or this woman whose labor is difficult, is an example of applying the rule: "necessities permit the prohibited." But necessity is measured by its extent. A woman who suffers from abdominal cramps, for example, there is no necessity for her to go and expose herself to a doctor and have him examine her abdomen or her private parts, and so on. This is the meaning of the rule "necessities permit the prohibited" and its restriction by the rule: but "necessity is measured by its extent." So, what we know in the present era, the era of laxity and the era of non-compliance with the rulings of the Shari'ah, is that most Muslim women hardly distinguish, from the perspective of the Shari'ah ruling, between the doctor treating her being male or female. And on the other hand, and this is very, very rare in the present era, is a man who will absolutely not take his wife to a doctor because he is a man, even if that leads to her death. These people are in one camp and those people are in another, and the truth lies between them. I think this is the answer to your question?

The questioner : May Allah reward you with good.