A woman said, "It is unlawful for me to go to such-and-such place," and then goes there. What is the religious ruling on that?

All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

If this woman intended by the statement mentioned above to make forbidden what Allaah The Exalted Has Made lawful or swearing an oath (on that), this is impermissible because it is only Allaah The Exalted Who Makes things and acts lawful and unlawful. Moreover, swearing by other than Allaah The Exalted is forbidden. Therefore, she has to repent to Allaah The Exalted and seek His Forgiveness. This statement does not render the thing or act that she has made forbidden to herself unlawful. However, it requires the person to repent and seek Forgiveness. Muslim scholars stated that declaring something lawful as unlawful to oneself does not entail unlawfulness or require expiation. The Maaliki scholar Ibn Abu Zayd said in his commentary on the book Ar-Risaalah, "Whoever forbids to himself something that is lawful such as an item of food, beverage, article of clothing, or anything else, it is not unlawful to him. It is not incumbent on him to do anything in expiation for this except seeking forgiveness from Allaah The Exalted for the sin of saying such a statement. This does not render this lawful act, thing, item of food, clothing, or the like unlawful because Allaah The Exalted Is The Only One Who Makes things lawful or unlawful." [Ar-Risaalah]

Some Muslim scholars believed that the person in such a case is required to offer expiation and we have highlighted that this opinion is considered more preponderant. Therefore, this woman should offer expiation for breaking an oath. The expiation is to feed ten needy people, or clothe them, or free a slave. If she fails to do any of the three aforesaid options, she should fast three days. If her intention was to swear by the Haraam (i.e. what is forbidden) not to go to that place, this oath is considered impermissible because swearing by anything or anyone other than Allaah The Exalted is forbidden as we have mentioned. Hence, she should repent to Allaah The Exalted and seek His Forgiveness and it is not incumbent on her to offer expiation because an oath is not considered a valid binding oath unless one swears by Allaah The Almighty or any of His Attributes.

 Allaah Knows best.