The Veil

Ten years ago, in November 2006, Al Jazeera English was launched. To mark that anniversary, we’ve created REWIND, which updates some of the channel’s most memorable and award-winning documentaries of the past decade. We find out what happened to some of the characters in those films and ask how the stories have developed in the years since our cameras left.

In 2008, before the Arab Spring and the recent controversies in France and elsewhere, the debate about whether Muslim women should wear the veil was already beginning to grow.

Al Jazeera’s Everywoman series travelled to Egypt to find out more about why some women choose to wear a veil, while others opt to keep their hair and faces uncovered.

The film reveals much about contrasting attitudes, about freedoms and choices, about perceptions of modesty and privacy and about the strong reactions that women get, whichever decision they make.

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