On the Legitimacy of Women's Clubs

Q: What is your opinion, Your Eminence, regarding women's clubs that men do not enter? And is there any harm for a woman in attending them?

A: I was asked about this issue. A representative from Al-Jazirah asked me about several matters in the past, including women's clubs. I told him: I see no objection to women's clubs if they are protected and only women frequent them; there is no harm in that with this condition, which is that it be among women and that only women frequent it. Then it reached me that it was interpreted as referring to the clubs that young men are accustomed to, the external clubs they go to. So I followed up the article with another article published in Al-Jazirah as well, in which I clarified my meaning regarding the clubs. My meaning is not men's clubs or similar clubs where there is free mixing between men and women, or exposure of the private parts, or other such wrongs. Rather, I meant the clubs that some schools establish for lectures and study among women, with the teachers and students. So if a school principal establishes a club for a lecture or for discussion among the students or among the teachers, that is what is intended.