Are the judiciary and the ministry in Islam duties of the caliph, in which he appoints deputies, or are they independent positions? And does the prohibition of women from holding the supreme caliphate also entail preventing them from assuming these two positions?

The majority of scholars are of the opinion that it is not permissible for a woman to hold positions of judgeship or ministry. They cite several pieces of evidence for this, including: that women were not tasked with these governmental positions during the time of the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, nor during the era of the Rightly Guided Caliphs; the verse from the Quran: "Men are in charge of women by [right of] what Allah has preferred some of them over others" [An-Nisa: 34]; and the Hadith (definition): "A people will not prosper who appoint a woman to govern them." Furthermore, judgeship is considered a branch of the supreme Imamate (leadership), which the Ummah has unanimously agreed a woman is prohibited from holding. In contrast, Abu Hanifa held the view that it is permissible for a woman to assume judgeship in matters of financial disputes but not in cases of retaliation (qisas) or prescribed punishments (hudud). Muhammad ibn al-Hasan (definition) and Ibn Jarir al-Tabari, however, maintained that it is permissible for a woman to hold judgeship absolutely.