Answer
Short Answer: Yes, but only what is normal in your culture, and only so long as you don’t try to imitate the opposite gender. In most cultures, women have pierced ears and even noses, but men usually don’t, so Muslims should aim to appear as the most respectable in their culture.
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Dr. Yasir Qadhi, Resident Scholar of Memphis Islamic Center, addresses this question in the video below:
Transcript:
Dr. Yasir Qadhi: “Our scholars have said that the piercing that is the norm and the normative in the cultures of the world—such as a woman piercing her ears or even a nose piercing—that this is something that is permitted.
Because we learned from this Sunnah and the Sharia that the women at the time of the Prophet (salAllahu alayhi wa salaam) also had their nose and their ears pierced, and they would wear the jewelry that is common amongst women.
Because we learned from this Sunnah and the Sharia that the women at the time of the Prophet (salAllahu alayhi wa salaam) also had their nose and their ears pierced, and they would wear the jewelry that is common amongst women.
However, beyond this, our scholars have said this gets to the issue of not only imitating the people who are not of good character, but also of body mutilation and the body should not be mutilated.
The body should be kept preserved and intact to the greatest extent possible.
… Especially for men, as well, because there’s also the issue of being effeminate or imitating women—so all of this should be avoided to the greatest extent possible.
Women are allowed to get their ears pierced, and in certain societies and cultures, their nose as well.
Other than this, it should be kept to a minimum because of two reasons: number one, the body should be preserved as much as possible; and number two, we don’t want to imitate the people who are a bad character.
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