In a video posted to his official Youtube channel late on Sunday, Egypt's former Grand Mufti Dr. Ali Goma'a said that it's permissible for women to take off the hijab at work if they "have no other option."
The statement came in response to a question Goma'a received from a woman who lives in a non-Muslim country.
In her letter to the scholar, the woman explained that she works at a nursery and is obliged by her employers to remove the headdress at work.
She also went on to explain that most people at her workplace are women and children, adding that she wears the hijab outside of work hours.
In his response, Goma'a explained that the Holy Qoran clearly states Muslims must obey God's will "to the best of their ability."
"If a person is forced to do something because they have no other option, they have committed no sin," he added.
"What's important is their intention and that they still hold on to their faith," he said.
Many Muslim women face a similar dilemma in Europe
The problem Goma'a responded to is one that affects the lives of millions of Muslim women, especially those who live in Europe.
This is because last year the European Court of Justice >issued a ruling allowing employers to ban religious clothing at workplaces.
In the months after the ruling, The Guardian >published a video featuring three Muslim women discussing how their lives had changed after the court's decision.
In it, the women expressed guilt over taking their hijab off for work and explained how difficult their living conditions had become following the EU ruling.
While the European Court of Justice's ruling technically applies to all religious symbols, including Christian crosses, the Hindu bindi (red forehead dot) and the Jewish kippah, the specific cases brought before the court featured Muslim women.
The ruling specifically addressed a Belgian woman working for G4S Secure Solutions.
She was banned from wearing the headscarf as part of a company policy barring all visible religious symbols. Another case involved a French woman who works in IT. She was asked to remove the hijab after a client had complained.