Differences in a woman’s and man’s prayer

In the Shafi`i school, a woman’s prayer is very similar to a man’s prayer. The differences that you have mentioned are ones that you need to be aware of. Hashiyat al-Bajuri (1/174) adds three more:

1) When a woman is in prostration (sajda), it is recommended for her to bring her stomach close to her thighs.

2) When she needs to alarm someone of something during the prayer, she does not say “SubhanAllah” as men, rather she claps, by hitting the palm of her right hand on the back of her left hand.

3) It also mentions the ruling for reciting out loud for loud (jahri) prayers and quietly for the quiet (sirri) prayers, this is dealt with in a separate post, which you will find at the following link.

Women reciting out loud

As for the examples that you mentioned, it is sunna that a woman raise her hands as high as men do, but if you wish to only raise them until your shoulders, this is fine. The integral of the prayer is uttering “Allahu Akbar”, not raising the hands. The manner in which you raise the will not affect the validity of the prayer.

As for praying with your hands inside your headcover, it is not necessary. However, it is perfectly permissible, as I was told by Shaykh Husayn of Syria, may Allah have mercy on him. Most women do find that it is much easier to do it that way, since they no longer have to worry about their wrists being exposed while raising the hands.

As for sitting in the tawarruk style only, it has not necessary that a woman do this, but it is permissible if she wants to. According to the shari`ah, it is sunna to sit in iftirash just like the men (when it is called for) and in tawarruk just like the men (when it is called for).

Finally, for the prostration, one’s rear being higher than one’s head is a condition for the validity of the prostration, without which, one’s prostration would be invalid and must be repeated. In this aspect, our prostration is just like the men’s, except that we keep our feet and knees together, and our stomachs close to our thighs and our arms close to the sides.

And Allah knows best.

Shazia