Qurbani & Slaughtering For Women

May 30, 2025

Qurbani & Slaughtering For Women – While Maintaining Purdah…

“The flesh and blood (of the Qurbani animals) will never reach Allah, but it is your Taqwa that will reach Him.” (Surah Hajj, Aayat 37)

 It is perfectly permissible for women to slaughter their own Qurbani animals. In fact, many women do have an interest in slaughtering their Qurbani animals. If for whatever reason they can’t personally slaughter their animals, then they may witness the slaughtering taking place. While all this is perfectly permissible, the permissibility is conditioned with the clause ‘while maintaining Purdah/Hijaab’.

Hereunder are steps that may serve as guidelines to maintain a Hijaab-friendly environment to facilitate a woman’s Qurbani in a Taqwa friendly way:

IMPORTANT NOTE: Remember, this topic of women slaughtering their Qurbani animals is restricted to Qurbani made at home. We firmly discourage women’s presence at farms where lots of merry-making, intermingling, photo shooting, Haraam and other anti-Taqwa activities take place. We discourage even men who are interested in gaining a Taqwa-friendly Qurbani experience and atmosphere to refrain from heading towards such farms!

  1. The sheep should be brought to the slaughtering hole/place, and put down.
  2. The workers, male-cousins, brother-in-laws, non-Mahram uncles, neighbours, and ANY non-Mahram male should move away from that area to make it Purdah-safe for the woman to appear. Non-Mahram men should not be able to see her at all.
  3. The men should not suffice by merely ‘turning their backs’, while still loitering around near the woman who is slaughtering! Rather, ALL non-Mahram men should ‘disappear’, i.e. make themselves scarce – stay away / vacate – from the area and its precincts, to facilitate the woman’s coming and going, while she doesn’t have to even accidently ‘bump into’ any male on her way to and fro.
  4. Thereafter, the sheep should be held down by ONLY the Mahrams of the woman.
  5. The woman should then come to the slaughtering place and proceed to slaughter her sheep. It will be most wise for her to keep her Niqaab on, to avoid any exposure to a non-Mahram in the unfortunate event of her ‘bumping into’ any on her way to and fro.
  6. After she slaughters, she should move away from there – go back into the safety of her fortress (home). She should in no way hang around in the area. Her job was just to slaughter which has been achieved. Hanging around there will ask for some sort of intermingling to take place, sooner or later.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:

  • A woman should be physically fit and strong to be able to slaughter the animal without causing the animal any Takleef.
  • When she is given the go-ahead that the slaughtering place is safe for her when ALL non-Mahrams have vacated the area and the precincts, then only she should make her way quickly to the area.
  • The knives should be sharp.
  • She should know how to use the slaughtering knives. After all, these knives are different to her kitchen knives she is used to.
  • A woman should also be able to see blood! She should expect blood to ooze out and come onto her hands and possibly even her clothes, after severing the neck of the animal. She can’t be expecting rose petals to pour out of the animal’s neck.
  • If a woman is slaughtering for the first time, she should be trained and educated on how to/where to slaughter by her father, brother, husband or if she has a son who is experienced in this matter.
  • A woman should demand that the slaughtering place and its precincts be free of any non-Mahram men. Even the workers, for example: Mr Philimon, Mr Jabu or Shaykh Moosa, Shaykh Rashid and Shaykh Dawood are NOT her Mahrams and SHOULD leave the area to facilitate a Purdah-friendly Qurbani for her.
  • ALL non-Mahram MEN should co-operate when asked to vacate the area before the arrival of the woman.
  • The Mahram men should arrange for the area to be non-Mahram FREE.

WHO ARE HER MAHRAMS?

Apart from her husband, any male with whom a woman cannot get married to, are her Mahrams. These include:

  • Father and grandfathers
  • Husband
  • Brother/s (who are Baaligh)
  • Son/s (who are Baaligh)
  • Nephew/s (who are Baaligh)

COMMON MEN WHO ARE NOT HER MAHRAMS:

  • Brother in laws
  • Maternal or paternal aunt’s husband
  • Male cousins, no matter how ‘close’ they were or grew up like ‘siblings’
  • The male workers
  • (The above lists common men found near a woman on such occasions)

(To read and download this article as PDF, please click on this link: https://custodiansofthehaq.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Qurbani-for-women.pdf)