Compelling the wife of the lodge dervish to wash the deceased

Question

If in some village the dervish who washes the dead lives far from the village and finds himself in difficulty with washing women, because he has no one except his wife, who observes hijab — may he take his hijab-observing wife by compulsion to perform the washing, when she herself is not willing?

Answer

Washing [the deceased] is a communal obligation (fard kifaya). If others too are able to wash, then compelling her is not permissible: washing is not such a difficult task that everyone should place it on one person’s head; everyone ought to learn it.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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