Is a student's refusal to allow a female doctor to touch his back to apply a practical part of a "therapeutic exercises" course in a mixed-gender university a correct or incorrect action, and is this considered a necessity, like a man being treated by a female doctor?

A woman touching a man is permissible in the fields of medicine and education when there is no male practitioner available, and only to the extent dictated by need or imposed by necessity.

Scholars have cited as evidence the hadith of Rubayyi' bint Mu'awwidh, which states that women would go on campaigns with the Prophet (peace be upon him), providing water to the people, serving them, and returning the dead and wounded to Medina.

Scholars have indicated that this permissibility is restricted to elderly women (mujallat) from whom no temptation is feared, and in cases of necessity when a practitioner of the same gender is unavailable.

Furthermore, necessity is to be judged by its extent, and it only applies when the educational system is unable to provide men to train men and women to train women.