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The Islamic ethic on gender relations requires modesty and includes a dress code that stipulates what areas of the body must remain covered for men and women. The ethic of seclusion prohibits unrelated men and women to touch the body parts of each other.
In the case of a Muslim man or woman when he or she wishes to seek medical care, he or she must visit a doctor of the same sex, since he or she may have to expose their body parts and be touched and handled by the caretaker.
The ruling regarding the covering of one’s personal body parts is extremely important in Islamic practice, however, when the need for curing serious medical complications arises, and one is compelled by necessity to treat an illness, then the Islamic practice grants allowances for these needs to be fulfilled.
These allowances, however, do not extend to getting non-medical related bodywork that is personal and distinguished from medical touching and treatments.
Muslim women are expected to only perform non-medical related bodywork on other women and cannot extend this service to the opposite sex.
