Living in Non-Muslim Countries
Working in Mixed-Gender Jobs in the West
When work in the West inevitably involves mixed-gender environments, it is permitted if the believer can control their gaze, avoid temptation, and ensure no unlawful seclusion occurs. If there is no alternative and the person genuinely needs the work, they may choose the lesser of two evils, with caution and self-restraint.
Questioner:
Is it permitted to work in jobs with mixed-gender environments in the West? With the knowledge that it is difficult to find work that does not involve mixing between the genders?
Shaykh Muḥammad Bāzmūl:
If this is the situation, and the Believer in question can restrain his gaze and himself from temptation and looking at what Allāh has forbidden, and avoid violations to the law – so he does not end up in seclusion with a strange woman – and he has no way to work except in this manner while he actually needs to work and earn, we say that choosing the lesser of the two evils when he has no choice but to do one or the other, he is permitted to work in such an environment, but with the conditions mentioned previously. And Allāh alone we ask for help.
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