Working as an air hostess: an Islamic view
25-10-2009 | IslamWeb
Question:
1. i want to know about the job of air hostess.is it allowed or not?what if she is wearing full covered uniform and hijab on head and travelling with full company security.there is no alcohal served.
2. what about income from this job is halal,haram,makrooh,karahut etc.
we can use this income for umrah and hajj or not.
plz reply in detail both questions for all sisters
thank you
Answer:
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad 
is His slave and Messenger.
Everyone who is knowledgeable about Sharee’ah knows that it is forbidden and a great evil for a Muslim woman to work as an air hostess in an airline company. This is not because the precise work that she does, like providing food and cleaning, is forbidden, but it is because this work includes many acts of disobedience to Allaah, like hostesses not wearing an Islamic dress; rather, they dress in an indecent and improper manner as it is known from them. There is no doubt that not wearing Hijab is forbidden by the Book of Allaah, the Sunnah of the Prophet and the consensus of the scholars 
.
Even if an air hostess covers her hair and wears Hijab and she does not serve intoxicants, she cannot avoid mixing, touching and shaking hands with non-Mahram men, and all this is forbidden. In addition to this, her travel without a Mahram is also forbidden as we clarified in Fataawa 83912 and 83795.
Since her work is forbidden, the salary that she earns from such a job is from a void contract and it [salary] is not lawful for her and it is not permissible for her to own it; rather she should spend it on the general welfare of the Muslims, especially the poor and the destitute. Nonetheless, she is only entitled to the salary of someone who does the same job like her for the permissible work that she does, like serving water and helping the passengers and the like. As regards what remains from that salary, it is ill-gotten money because it comes from a void contract, and it is in return for providing forbidden services.
If she performs Hajj with this ill-gotten money, then the majority of the scholars are of the view that whoever performs Hajj with ill-gotten money, he will be exempted from the obligation (of performing) Hajj again although he is sinful for consuming that ill-gotten money. For more benefit, please refer to Fatwa 82512.
Also, for more benefit on the pre-conditions for a woman to work, please refer to Fatwa 82399, and to Fatwa 83702 on Hijab.
Allaah Knows best.