What is the ruling on a woman exposing her entire chest in front of her mahrams and women?

The questioner : May Allah reward you. A questioner asks: What is the ruling on a woman exposing her entire chest in front of her mahrams and women?

The Shaykh : What we should know is that some women understood from the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): that the meaning is that a woman is permitted to wear clothing that covers what is between the knee and the navel. This is a mistake, because the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) only forbade the other woman from looking at the 'awrah of the woman, and he did not say to the woman being looked at that she may wear short clothing. However, if a woman is wearing complete covering clothing and her garment rises up due to a need such that her 'awrah becomes visible, it is not permissible for the other woman to look at her 'awrah. It is well known that the women of the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) used to wear shirts from the wrist to the ankle in their homes. As for when they went out to the market, the woman would drag her hem by a span or an arm's length so that their feet would not be seen, and she would wear the niqab when she went out to the market so that her face would not be seen. For this reason, because the custom of women is to wear the niqab. However, I do not issue a fatwa permitting the niqab now, meaning, because I saw that when I issued a fatwa for women regarding the niqab, what did they do? They expanded it, so the woman, instead of exposing only her eye, would expose the eye, the eyelid, the eyebrow, and the cheek, and it reached the point where they would cover the nose and mouth with a veil and expose the rest. Therefore, I do not issue a fatwa permitting it in order to block the means to harm. And preventing a fatwa in order to block the means to harm is not a problem. Here is 'Umar ibn al-Khattab (may Allah be pleased with him), when the triple divorce became common in his time, meaning, if a man divorced his wife and said, "You are divorced, you are divorced, you are divorced," it was considered one divorce, to block what? The means to harm. Yes.