Al-Matalib al-'Aliyah 1226 — Crowding to kiss the Black Stone

Manbudh narrates from his mother that she related: I was with the Mother of the Believers, Sayyidah Aishah (may Allah be pleased with her), when one of her freed slave-women came and said: "I did the istilam of (kissed) the Black Stone three times during the seven circuits of tawaf." Sayyidah Aishah (may Allah be pleased with her) (expressing strong displeasure at this act) said two or three times: "May Allah not reward you for it! Why did you not say 'Allahu akbar' (Allah is the Greatest) from a distance, gesture, and pass by quietly? You intended to push into the crowd of men and jostle them (which is wholly unbefitting for a woman)."
According to the commentators of hadith, this fiqh principle is derived from this report: kissing the Black Stone is recommended for women only when there is no crowd of men; otherwise mixing with unrelated men and bodily contact with them would amount to taking the path of disobedience to attain a virtue. Therefore in such a situation, gesturing from a distance is the Sunnah and a means of reward.