"They used to enter my father's house and women did not...

"They used to enter my father's house and women did not cover their hair before them."1 As to "the women of the Book", of course, they do not need to be dhimmah ('People of the Book' who live in Muslim lands and are accorded hospitality and protection by Islam on condition of acknowledging Islamic political domination and paying the jizyah tax) because they all have the ruling of a kafir. (A person who covers over the truth of religion, a disbeliever, an infidel).

There is no problem with looking at the hair of a Jewish woman or a Christian or a Zoroastrian woman or a woman who is none of these. The Holy Prophet said, "It is not forbidden to look at the hands and hair of dhimmah women."2 Wherever you look you see that the issue which is an exception is referred to or questioned and the face and hands are not questioned. Whereas if it had been forbidden to look at the face and hands of a woman, they would have been referred to in the exceptions.

"Wasa'il", vol.3, p.29. "Wasa'il", vol.3, p.26. As to dhimmah women, some of the 'ulama believe that we must look and see what the situation was at the time of the Holy Prophet; what extent of the body was not covered? Clearly the dhimmah women did not cover their hair or their hands to a certain point. These was no problem, then, in looking at them. I have mentioned that in every exception, it is permitted to look without lust except under one condition.

That is to look at a woman in lust when one wants to see a woman to decide whether or not to marry her, as a serious suitor of marriage.1 Of course, it is clear that a man cannot spend years looking at women in this way to determine whether or not he wants to marry her. There are other conditions as well. How much education should she have? Where does she come from, etc.

After all of the other conditions are met and the only one remaining is to see if one wants to marry her, it is this situation that the exception refers to. If the purpose is only lust, it is clearly not with the intention of marrying. These, then, were some of the traditions but there are many more from both Sunni and Shi'ite sources. Now as to the dhimmah women, the traditions say it is Muslim woman but not with lust or with a look with holds the fear of deviating within it.

It is permissible to look at her in what she customarily wears outside of her home. Ayatollah Burujerdi says that one must suffice to look only at that which was common in those days.