Bedouin women veil their faces more strictly than city dwellers but enjoy greater freedom of dress and movement. Besides managing the family tent, some have even taken to driving the tribe’s water truck. Driving is a privilege denied women in the city.
—From “Women of Saudi Arabia,” October 1987, National Geographic magazine
Flush with wealth from its oil fields, Oman has catapulted from an Arabian Peninsula backwater to a modern nation while managing to keep many of its traditions alive.
Peer behind the veil and enter the lives of Saudi Arabian women in this photo gallery that explores how these women of tradition are adapting as their society modernizes.
