I’ m Margareta Turos, a hungarian anthropologist and world traveler photographer. I’ m interested in veiled women all over the world.
Veil - tradition or religion that binds or separates it from the outside world, compulsory or freely chosen, security or isolation, identity or constraint, the veil wear has different meanings in other cultures. Yet it is time to go back to Christ a thousand years ago, in the Assyrian empire and pass through the ancient veils that we can get from the sacred hierodules to today's Taliban laws. Through a historical description and case studies, we get closer to women's conceit, self-expression of the face under the veil. We laugh and we cry with the Eastern women until we get to the recognition that there are veils beside Western women too, even if they are smoother or more transparent, but they also cover the face under veils. Provocation, controversy or symbol, the veil is now an expression of idleness and has not only political, traditional or feminist aspects but has deep psychological implications .
I tried the veil, I felt fears and security. I felt isolation and selfconfidence. I felt that I am somebody else, my own tale, I saw the world who doesn t saw me. I was happy and sad in the same moment. All stories what I knew about the veiled women with who I spoke passed in my brain, my soul and I realised that freedom is inside us, forever and irreversible.
In Kenya is one of the largest urban refugee communities in Africa. Women feel increasing pressure to cover their heads and bodies in accordance with the practices of their Somali neighbors and fellow refugees. More and more, as instability and violence is growing, Girl from a school of 200 refugee kids in Ghiturai, Nairobi, 2017
The veil in Senegal illustrates the power of fashion to transform social stratification into dialogical process. To the final of XX.century, Islamic groups from Iran and Saudi Arabia, quite foreign to the Sufi brotherhoods that compose most of Senegalese Islam, gained a foothold among young people. Senegalaise women in Dakar, 2014
Tunisian women in Sousse, 2010
In Africa, women have often used the veil to assert both their freedom and their economic might. Most Tuareg are Muslim, semi-sedentarized, socially stratified, and until recently, predominantly rural and nomadic, but now semi-nomadic. Tunisian women in a cave, Douz, 2006
Women in chador in Vienna, 2016
The hijab is one name for a variety of similar headscarves. It is the most popular veil worn in the West. These veils consist of one or two scarves that cover the head and neck. Outside the West, this traditional veil is worn by many Muslim women in the Arab world and beyond. Refugee women in Keleti Railway station, Budapest, 2015
The chador is a full-body-length shawl held closed at the neck by hand or pin. It covers the head and the body but leaves the face completely visible. Chadors are most often black and are most common in the Middle East. Women in Genf 2014
Since the seventh century, Islam has grown to be one of the major world religions. As it spread through the Middle East to Saharan and sub-Saharan Africa, to Central Asia, and to many different societies around the Arabian Sea, it incorporated some local veiling customs and influenced others. Maroccan women in Marrakesh 2017
In traditional Jewish communities, women wear head coverings after marriage in many different forms: hats, scarves, and wigs and all cover and reveal different lengths of hair. The origin of the tradition in the Sotah ritual, a ceremony described in the Bible that tests the fidelity of a woman accused of adultery. According to the Torah, the priest uncovers or unbraids the accused woman’s hair as part of the humiliation that precedes the ceremony, so the hair covering is a biblical requirement for women. This women is from ultra orthodox community in Jerusalem( Mea Shearim) and she s the mother of five kids. Jerusalem, 2011
Indian poor women in Himachal Pradesh on the road, 2014
All in her eyes, indian women in a village in rajastan, 2015
The concept of covering up women's head and face came with the Muslim rule in India. During the Rajput reign in India, the women were kept in veils to protect them from the bad intentions of the invaders. Indian women Chandigar, 2015
a veiled mother, near Jaipur, 2015
The art of a veil, India, 2015
Indian veiled women from Rajastan, 2015
In India, covering head or putting a ghoonghat is often seen as a mark of respect. Married women are supposed to pull off a ghoonghat or head veil in front of elder male members of the family. In very traditional and rural areas, women use their sari to completely cover the face and neck, concealing their identity to males. Indian women from Rajastan 2015, Jaipur
