Veiled to all but her immediate family, a Bedouin woman pauses in her tent near the old inland capital of Nizwa. Bedouin females don the distinctive Omani burqa, or mask, after reaching puberty. This woman also wears a heavy silver necklace, called a hirz, for both adornment and protection. Verses from the Koran are tucked in a compartment to ward off evil.

—From “Oman,” May 1995, National Geographic magazine