Immature Girl Travelling Without Her Mahram

[ummtaalib]

Question and Answer:

Q. May an immature girl (before the bulugh) travel without her mahram? For example, is it permissible for an 8 year old girl to travel to another city (or even country) with her classmates and her teacher (but without any mahram)?

 

(Question published as received)

 

A.  Apart from it being the command of the Prophet of Allah (Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam), one of the core reasons why the Shari’ah prohibits a female from travelling over the distance of Safar (78kms) without a Mahram is for her own protection.

 

Besides a female’s husband and Mahrams, no other person, regardless of how senior and trustworthy he is may be trusted with this task of travelling with a girl especially over a long distance. We have been made aware of a number of incidents where females have been abused at the hands of those non-Mahrams who were considered to be responsible and senior people when travelling with them. The Shari’ah has put in place this system of a female travelling with a Mahram for a reason and it is only for one’s own benefit and safety. After all, Allah is the most caring and most wise.

 

The ruling pertaining to travelling without a Mahram is the same between a Balighah (mature) girl and a non-Balighah girl.

 

Thus, the ruling is that it is prohibited for her (a non-Balighah girl) to travel over the safar distance with her classmates or teachers if she is not accompanied by her Mahram male relative.

 

However, since she is not Balighah, she herself will not be sinful for travelling without a Mahram as a non-Balighah child is not accountable for her misdeeds. Nevertheless, her parents will be sinful for allowing her to travel in such a state.

 

And Allah Knows Best

 

Mufti Suhail Tarmahomed

Fatwa Department
Jamiatul Ulama (KZN)
Council of Muslim Theologians