Should women be allowed to go to funerals?

I don’t suppose there can be many ‘indigenous’ funerals held these days which prohibit the presence of women. There may be one or two redoubts in Presbyterian Scotland. Bucking the trend in the wider community, though, many Muslims prohibit their presence. 

Why ban women from funerals? To spare their feelings, mostly. Or put it another way, because they can’t be relied on to hold themselves in check. Women, as is well known, are easily subverted by the slightest emotion. They are prone to making a scene and creating disorder. 

This, at least, is the consideration which informs a thumbs-up for female funeral attendance at Muslim funerals in America, where Shaykh Luqman Ahmad has delivered this ruling

based upon the fact that Muslims in America, as a rule do not engage in the practices of wailing, tearing clothing, beating the cheeks, and hollering out bad statements at funerals, and the evidence from the sunna of the Prophet (SAWS) and the view of the scholars we have mentioned, it is not haram for Muslim women to accompany the funeral procession to the grave sites as long as they are able to control themselves … If there is a probability that attendance at the burial will stir emotions to a degree where unlawful behavior will likely occur … then it is prohibitively disliked.

Women: know your limits

Fifty years since JFK’s assassination

Posted by Richard Rawlinson

We’re approaching the 50th anniversary of John F Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas, Texas, at 12.30pm on Friday, 22 November 1963. In the wake of a media deluge, here’s a video of the state funeral on Monday, 25 November.

Preparations were speedy. The president’s body was brought back to Washington and, after 24 hours in the White House, the coffin was taken to lie in state at the Capitol, viewed thoughout Sunday by thousands of mourners. Meanwhile, representatives of countries from all over the world flew in to DC for the Monday requiem mass at St Matthew’s Cathedral, after which the president was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery.

From Abide with Me to the Last Post, from John-John’s salute as his father’s coffin went by to Jackie Kennedy’s mourning veil, the funeral seems remarkably timeless and universal.

The Good Funeral Guide
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