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Is it permissible to shake hands with non-mahram women with a barrier on the hand?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

It is not permissible to shake hands with a non-mahram woman, neither directly nor with a barrier, because that is a cause for lust and temptation and leads to looking at her. Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal was asked about a man shaking hands with a woman, and he said: "No," and he was very strict about it. Then he was asked: "Should he shake hands with her using his garment?" He replied: "No."

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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