Skip to main content

Visit Main Menu Block

  • Hours & Admission
  • Accessibility & Amenities
  • Tours & Group Visits
  • Visitor Guidelines

Exhibitions and Events Main Menu Block

  • Exhibitions
  • Events

Art and Design Main Menu Block

  • Collection
  • Collection Research
  • Past Exhibitions
  • Watch / Listen / Read

Footer Main

  • Become a Member
  • Who We Are
  • Opportunities
  • Rent the Museum
Previous image 1 2 / 2 Next image

Unknown Maker, Saudi Arabian

Woman's face veil (burqa)

Maker

Unknown Maker, Saudi Arabian

Culture

Saudi Arabian

Title

Woman's face veil (burqa)

Year

ca. 1950

Medium

  • cotton,
  • metal strips,
  • mother-of-pearl buttons,
  • metal coins,
  • glass beads; plain weave,
  • appliqué

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

  • cotton,
  • metal strips,
  • mother-of-pearl buttons,
  • metal coins,
  • glass beads; plain weave,
  • applique

Materials

cotton

Geography

Place Made: Arabian Peninsula

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Gift of Mrs. Mary S. Andrews and Ms. Mary Card

Object Number

64.047.2

Type

  • Costume Accessories

Exhibition History

Sartorial Sanctuary
Clothing and Traditions in the Eastern Islamic World
Dec 19, 2008 – Apr 26, 2009

Label copy

This exhibition seeks to demonstrate that Islam embraces many types and combinations of garments that articulate haya, or principles of modesty and humility, and that these garments convey additional meaning outside of religion. However, most of the women’s garments on view, particularly those worn in urban contexts, would have been concealed beneath enveloping overgarments in public, so this meaning was often expressed privately.

Whether worn as head or face covering, one garment that is always visible is the veil. Established as a practice in the Mediterranean world well before the advent of Islam, the wearing of veils dates to ancient times and hails from varied cultural and religious contexts. Like the Afghan chaadaree in this gallery, the head scarf or face veil can help a woman accomplish hijab, or “sanctity, reserve, and privacy,” but it also communicates many other details about the wearer-from cultural origin to status to taste. Also like the chaadaree, it is praised by advocates as a demonstration of faith and castigated by critics as a sign of the repression of women.

In the swirl of debate regarding these issues, it might be useful to pause and consider the words of Rezia Wahid, whose ethereal contemporary head scarf is displayed here beside varied 19th- and 20th-century examples of face covers: “The textiles I weave are more than mere pieces of cloth; for me they represent the sanctity, beauty, and serenity of Islam along with nature and are the revival of cultural form and technique.” Whether worn by a 21st-century artist, an upper-class Egyptian woman, or a Middle Eastern Bedouin, the pieces on view here are individual forms of expression tied to specific experience and belief.

Image use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use.

In copyright This object is in copyright

Tombstone

Unknown Maker, Saudi Arabian
Woman's face veil (burqa), ca. 1950
Cotton, metal strips, mother-of-pearl buttons, metal coins, glass beads; plain weave, applique
Gift of Mrs. Mary S. Andrews and Ms. Mary Card 64.047.2

To request new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

Footer Main

  • Become a Member
  • Who We Are
  • Opportunities
  • Rent the Museum

Footer Main Navigation

  • Visit

    • Hours & Admission
    • Accessibility & Amenities
    • Tours & Group Visits
    • Visitor Guidelines
  • Art & Design

    • Collection Research
    • Collection
    • Past Exhibitions
  • Join / Give

    • Become a Member
    • Give
  • Exhibitions & Events

    • Exhibitions
    • Events
  • Watch / Listen / Read

    • The Latest
    • Publications
    • Articles
    • Audio & Video

Footer Secondary Navigation

  • Who We Are
  • Opportunities
  • Image Request
  • Press Office
  • Rent the Museum
  • Terms of Use
Tickets
Homepage
Go to the risd.edu homepage. This link will open in a new window.