Can Muslim women wear pants?

Trousers are what many Muslim women wear to school, to work, to the gym, and to the mosque. Some have been told that pants are men’s clothing, or a Western fashion a Muslim woman should avoid. Muslim women may wear pants. The Quran asks for modest dress and names no particular garment, the Sunnah treats trousers as an ordinary part of a woman’s wardrobe, and Muslim women across the world have worn them for centuries.

What does the Quran say about women’s clothing?

The Quran speaks of clothing as a gift with two purposes:

قَدۡ أَنزَلۡنَا عَلَيۡكُمۡ لِبَاسٗا يُوَٰرِي سَوۡءَٰتِكُمۡ وَرِيشٗا

“We have sent down to you clothing to cover your nakedness, and as adornment.”

Quran 7:26

Clothing covers, and clothing beautifies. The Quran asks believing men and women alike to lower their gaze and guard their modesty (Quran 24:30), and it never prescribes a cut, a color, or a garment. Dresses, robes, skirts, and trousers can all be modest. On the headscarf, which the same verses are often cited for, see Is hijab mandatory in Islam?

Did Muslim women wear trousers in the time of the Prophet ﷺ?

Trousers (sirwāl, سروال) were known in Medina, and the Sunnah treats them as ordinary dress. When a man asked what may be worn in the state of pilgrim sanctity (iḥrām), the Prophet ﷺ told men not to wear shirts, trousers, turbans, or hooded cloaks. For women he added only that they should not wear the face veil or gloves (Sahih al-Bukhari 1838). A woman on pilgrimage wears her ordinary clothes, trousers included, in the holiest days of her life.

He also told a man who could not find a waist-wrap for iḥrām to wear trousers instead (Sahih al-Bukhari 1841). Trousers were a familiar garment that men set aside only for the pilgrimage.

Have Muslim women always worn pants?

For much of Muslim history, trousers have been women’s wear. In the Ottoman lands, a woman’s ensemble was the chemise (gömlek), the loose trousers called şalvar, and a long robe (entari), and women in rural Turkey still wear şalvar today. In South Asia, the shalwar and kameez arrived with Muslim communities in the north in the thirteenth century and were worn first by women. The shalwar kameez is now the national dress of Pakistan for women and men. In many Arab lands, women have long worn sirwāl beneath their dresses.

Muslim women did not borrow trousers from the West; they wore them for centuries before most European women did.

Is wearing pants imitating men?

Some cite the hadith in which the Prophet ﷺ cursed the man who wears women’s clothing and the woman who wears men’s clothing (Sunan Abi Dawud 4098). A number of scholars hold that trousers belong to men and that women should wear them only beneath a long garment or at home. This is a recognized opinion, held sincerely.

The classical scholars, however, defined imitation by custom. Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī (d. 1449) wrote in Fatḥ al-Bārī that the form of dress “differs with the custom of each land.” The jurist Ibn Daqīq al-ʿĪd (d. 1302) described forbidden imitation as wearing what is specific to the other sex in its kind and its form, or what predominantly marks their dress. Egypt’s Dar al-Ifta concludes that the standard is people’s custom, which differs from one country to another.

By that standard, a woman’s trousers are women’s clothing. They are designed, cut, sized, and sold for women, and no one who sees a woman in them mistakes her for a man. In Pakistan, Turkey, and most of the world today, trousers are as much a woman’s garment as a man’s.

What about jeans, leggings, and shorts?

Jeans are trousers, and women’s jeans are women’s clothing. Leggings, shorts, and sportswear raise a question of modesty rather than imitation. The Quran gives the principle and leaves its form to the conscience of each woman and the custom of her community. Many women wear leggings under a tunic or a long top, shorts for sport, and looser trousers for prayer; others choose differently. Muslim women have always dressed for their climate, their work, and their taste, from the şalvar of Anatolian villages to the shalwar of Punjab. Their choices deserve respect. Parents, spouses, and imams may give advice when it is asked for, and none of them has the right to impose it.

How should Muslim women choose what to wear?

• Modesty is your own. The Quran sets modesty as the principle for women and men alike, and leaves its form to conscience and custom.
• Wear what your life requires. Trousers make it easier to work, travel, play sports, and serve. Women’s full participation in public life is part of the sharia’s vision, as explained in Can women work in Islam?
• Pray in what you wear. Trousers with a top that covers the body meet the requirements of ṣalāh in every school; the steps of prayer are in How to pray in Islam.
• Let no one police you. Shaming women for their clothes is itself forbidden; see Is it haram to harass women about hijab?

A closing word

Allah honors the work of women and men equally, whatever they wear to do it:

أَنِّي لَآ أُضِيعُ عَمَلَ عَٰمِلٖ مِّنكُم مِّن ذَكَرٍ أَوۡ أُنثَىٰۖ بَعۡضُكُم مِّنۢ بَعۡضٖ

“I will not let the work of any one of you go to waste, whether male or female. You are of one another.”

Quran 3:195

Dress with dignity and gratitude, and spend your strength on the good work Allah will never let go to waste.