A man in a women’s fashion shop sells lingerie and discusses the measurements of female customers with them, which is also considered halal.

A poor woman begging at traffic lights is also halal, but a woman who works as a cashier at a supermarket is totally against Islam (haram) as it leads to gender mixing!

We innocently ask why is it not considered gender mixing when a man sits on the cashier’s desk and sells cheese, beans and olives to women?

Why is it not permissible when the opposite happens? Why is it considered gender mixing and against Islam when a woman sits at the cashier’s desk selling cheese, beans and olives to men?

The answer you may receive is this: “We have told you that this is haram. No more argument.”

As Islam asks you to use your brain, you begin to search for fatwas (religious ruling), but you will not find a single Qur’anic text forbidding women from selling and buying.

You say to yourself maybe the people who ruled against women cashiers referred to a Hadith, but again you will not find any saying of the Prophet (peace be upon him) to this effect.

You wait for the people who ruled that a woman working as a cashier is haram to show you any Islamic basis for their ruling, but you will be disappointed as there is no such basis for their ruling.

Satan will come into the equation. He will tell you that this is not a fatwa, but just an opinion. If you dare to express this view, you will immediately be marked as a secularist who will go to hell!

You drive Satan away, but he will continue to whisper to you that a fatwa without proof is just an opinion!

You still try to get rid of Satan, but your small brain remains unconvinced that women working as cashiers is haram in Islam. As you have not safeguarded yourself properly against the Devil, he will come to you again.

You will have no other option but to lock yourself in your room so that nobody hears you and say loudly to the walls: “If the number of women cashiers is only 90 so far, why don’t the people who ruled that their work is haram find them jobs in government departments?”