What is the Ruling on Women Wearing Pants and Short Dresses?

Sheikh: For a man or…? Question: No, for women, yes. Because the questioner, I think, is a woman, but she did not clarify her name as she should. Answer: Yes, there is no doubt that pants and short dresses do not cover the ‘Awrah (part of the body that must not be exposed). As for the first, it is because the pants are according to the size of the limb, and each limb has a size that has a set space in the pants. So that means that it describes the limbs of the body, - that is: describes their sizes - and this is a kind of revealing, so in fact she is clothed yet naked. As for the short dress, it also does not properly cover the ‘Awrah, However if it is long enough so that it doesn’t expose from the woman except what it is permissible for her to uncover: then there is nothing wrong with it [being worn] in front of the women. Because it is permissible for a woman to look at anything other than what is between the navel and the knee of a woman. So if nothing appears from the dress except that, then there is nothing wrong with it around women.