The Syrian Future Movement condemns the decision issued by the General Director of Al-Muwasat Hospital, Amin Eid Al-Latif Suleiman, dated 2025-04-16, which spread to the media on Saturday. The decision dictates that women sit in the back and men in the front “regardless of their job titles,” citing it as “based on the requirements of public interest,” according to the decision’s phrasing.
The Syrian Future Movement considers this decision contrary to the spirit of Islamic law and to Syrian social norms, and views it as a blatant intrusion into the personal affairs of Syrians.
The Syrian Future Movement stresses that the kind of gender mixing forbidden in Islam is only that which is accompanied by immorality and indecency. As for what is customary among people, no scholar has declared it forbidden. Al-Mawwaq, one of the Maliki scholars, said in “Al-Muwatta”: “Can a woman eat with a non-mahram or with her servant boy? Imam Malik said: There is no harm in that, as long as it is customary for the woman to eat with that man. A woman may eat with her husband or others whom she usually dines with.”
Thus, it is permissible for a woman to eat with her husband and with others she is accustomed to eating with, even if one of them is a non-mahram relative. Imam Ibn Hazm mentioned in “Al-Muhalla” that Umar ibn Al-Khattab appointed (Al-Shifa’), a woman from his tribe, to oversee the marketplace — a task that inevitably involved interaction with unrelated men, so she could fulfill her responsibilities.
The Syrian Future Movement calls on all officials and administrators to align with leadership principles by avoiding preoccupation with trivial matters and by refraining from imposing restrictions on practices familiar and accepted by Syrians. They should instead focus on rebuilding what the former regime destroyed in the foundational structures of the country.
The Syrian Future Movement calls for an end to interference in the personal affairs of Syrians under the pretext of religion and Sharia, as such actions only drive people away from faith and exploit it to distract from the truly significant matters — the foundations of constructing the new phase. As the Noble Prophet Muhammad said:
“Indeed, Allah loves high matters and noble goals and dislikes petty matters.”
Decision of the Director of Al-Muwasat Hospital:
