A woman's
husband has elderly parents. He desires to have meals with them sometimes.

He has a
younger brother's. If his wife sits and eats with them with her Niqaab on, will
it be permissible?

She will have
no conversations with her brother in laws and her husband will be seated with
her at the table. 

Answer: 

Due to keeping her gaze lowered, donning the Hijaab (thereby not exposing her face at any stage during the meals) nor engaging in any conversation with him, she will be considered to be observing Shari’ee Purdah.

However, if the younger brother resides with his parents and always enjoys the privilege of having meals with his parents, then he should be considerate when his sister-in-law is around and perhaps delay his meals to a later stage. In this way, she can comfortably partake of meals with her elderly in-laws, without having to don the Hijaab.

If this is not possible, then she could partake of meals at her in laws with her husband when the brother-in-law is away at work. This too will allow her to comfortably enjoy her meals without having to don her Hijaab.

These are some of the options to ease the situation.

AND ALLAH TA’ALA ALONE IN HIS INFINITE KNOWLEDGE KNOWS BEST

ANSWERED BY: Mufti Mohammed Desai 

CHECKED AND APPROVED BY: Mufti Muhammed Saeed Motara Saheb D.B 

Date: 16 Muharram 1441 

English Date: 16 September 2019