Abu Dawud

Benefits and Issues:
➊ In jihad, women may be employed for services to the mujahideen.
➋ These tasks can be performed while observing hijab.
➌ Therefore, for these services, it is also necessary to provide women with education, training, and practice.
➍ In light of the Shari’ah teachings, absolutely no permission can be given for unrelated men and women to mix openly and without hijab.
➎ Some people derive a general rule and principle from a few isolated incidents of this kind from the era of the Prophet (sallallahu alayhi wa sallam),
➏ that there should be no distinction or difference between men and women in any matter,
➐ and that women should participate side by side with men in every field of life.
➑ But it is obvious that this claim of such people is entirely incorrect,
➒ and their reasoning is baseless. How can the Western concept of equality between men and women, and participation side by side in every matter, be established merely from taking a few elderly women along for minor services such as dressing the wounds of the injured and giving them water?

Hadith Commentary: Benefits and Issues: Under the necessities of war, older women can be taken along; they can, while observing proper covering (purdah), prepare food for them, give them water, and tend to their husbands and mahrams, and treat their wounds. If needed, they may also treat non-mahrams without physical contact. However, from such types of hadiths, how can it be proven that women may participate with men in all fields of life—meaning, making them members of assemblies, appointing them as ministers or advisors, making them the center of attention in social activities and striving for this, becoming air hostesses and nurses to entertain Muslims and patients, working with unrelated men in private and government offices, studying with boys in schools, colleges, and universities, performing the duties of secretary and receptionist, going abroad to acquire modern education, and working in national councils, art councils, radio, TV, and film studios? While, according to Islamic law, a woman’s entire body is ‘awrah, which must be covered from unrelated men, because there is a difference between hijab and ‘awrah (satr): hijab relates to the entire body, as is established from the verses of Surah al-Ahzab, and ‘awrah relates to the body except for the hands and face, as is understood from the verses of Surah al-Nur. Therefore, a woman, in her home, may keep her face and hands uncovered, but when she goes outside, she must cover them as well.

(For this, the pamphlet "Satr aur Hijab" by Maulana Ahsan Islahi is worth reading.)

Explanation:
1:
Jihad is not obligatory upon women,
but due to the benefits and necessities mentioned in the hadith, it is permissible for them to participate in jihad.
An accepted Hajj (hajj mabrur) is the most virtuous form of jihad for them.
In jihad, a person has to endure the hardships of travel,
difficulties,
and sufferings,
and must spend wealth.
In Hajj and Umrah, one also faces all these hardships,
therefore, women receive the reward of jihad for Hajj and Umrah.
On this basis, Hajj and Umrah have been declared as jihad for women, as if the reward of jihad is granted to them upon performing Hajj and Umrah.