Sociology of the Veil in Saudi Arabia: Dress Code,Individual Choices,and Questions on Women's Empowerment

Veiling is commonly practiced in many Muslim societies, but its prevalence, and enforcement in Saudi Arabia is extraordinary. With changing status, Saudi women have started to defy the practice; and it is suggested that its enforcement has also become less frequent. In contemporary Saudi Arabia, many women, following the dress code of the abaya (black cloak) and hijab (head cover), have started to discard the naqab (face veil). Does this indicate a widening of the margins so far as veiling is concerned? Or is it an indication that Saudi society is becoming amenable to individual choices? To conclude that veiling has become a matter of individual choice would stretch the point beyond fact, but suggesting diversity in veiling practice would not be wrong. Saudi women continue to face structural constraints and systemic discrimination, but their improving socioeconomic conditions have provided them the ability to choose the way they want to be dressed in public so far as the use of naqab is concerned. Though a minor development, contextualized in the larger discourse on women's empowerment, this is no small achievement and is indicative of ruptures in the established social norm of veiling.