Can women slaughter animals?

Question

Can women slaughter as per hanafi fiqh?

Do we have evidence from ahadith that mention women slaughtering outside hanafi fiqh?

Answer 1

To supplement Kilise's answer.

ان امراة، ذبحت شاة بحجر، فسيل النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم عن ذلك، فامر باكلها

A lady slaughtered a sheep with a stone and then the Prophet (ﷺ) was asked about it and he permitted it to be eaten.

_{— Sahih Bukhari, Book of Hunting}

Maliki:

Tafsir Al Qurtubi on 5:3, (Qurtubi does not mention any difference on this among the madhabs)

وكل من أطاقه وجاء به على سنتّه من ذكر أو أنثى بالغ أو غير بالغ جاز ذبحه إذا كان مسلماً أو كتابياً، وذبح المسلم أفضل من ذَبْح الكتابي، ولا يذبح نُسكاً إلا مسلم؛

That they slaughter it according to the sunnah method: be they male or female, child or adult their action of slaughtering is valid when they are Muslims or people of the Book. And the slaughtered of a Muslim is preferable to the slaughtered of a Kitabee (People of the Book: Jews\Christians). A Sacrificial slaughter should only be performed by a Muslim.

Hanafi:

From Al-Hidayah fi Sharh Bidayat al-Mubtadi:

ويحل إذا كان يعقل التسمية والذبيحة ويضبط وإن كان صبيا أو مجنونا أو امرأة

Provided he be a person acquainted with the form of invocation, whether man or woman, infant or idiot. THE Zabbah is lawful provided the slayer be acquainted with the form of the Tasmeea, or invocation in the name of GOD, the nature of Zabbah, and the method of cutting the veins of the animal ; and it signifies not whether the person be a man or a woman, an infant or an idiot, a circumcised person or an uncircumcised.

Shafi:

Minhaj al Talibin:

moreover the butcher and the hunter should be Moslems, or at any rate belong to those religious persuasions among whom Moslems may choose their wives. One may also eat of the flesh of an animal killed by a female infidel slave, professing a religion founded upon some holy book, although she cannot become the wife of a Moslem.

Hanbali:

Al-Mughni by Ibn Qudamah:

إذا ذبح ، حل أكل ذبيحته ، رجلا كان أو امرأة ، بالغا أو صبيا ، حرا كان أو عبدا ، لا نعلم في هذا خلافا .

قال ابن المنذر : أجمع كل من نحفظ عنه من أهل العلم ، على إباحة ذبيحة المرأة والصبي

Their slaughtered will be eaten, be they a man or woman, child or adult, free or enslaved, and we don't know of a difference of opinion on this.

Ibn Manzar said: The people of knowledge are unanimous on the permissibly of slaughter by a woman or a child.

Answer 2

If there is no hadith (or verse) that prohibits women to slaughter, then the general rule would be that a woman may slaughter animals. As the general rule in fiqh is that everything that is not proven haram, is by default halal (i.e not forbidden)

But even though this is true, we do have some ahadith about a woman slaughtering:

"Allah's Messenger went out and I went with him. He entered upon a woman from the Ansar. She slaughtered a sheep and he ate from it; and she brought a basket with ripe dates and he ate from it. Then he performed Wudu for Zuhr and prayed. Then he finished, so she brought him something from the remainder of the sheep. So he ate it, then prayed Asr and did not perform Wudu."

(sunnah.com)

So even here, the Prophet ate from the slaughtered animal and didn't prohibit it or even mentioned anything about it, which indicates it is clearly valid for a woman to slaughter.

Conclusion

Yes, a woman can slaughter animals.