Male Veils
Among the Tuareg, Songhai, Moors, Hausa and Fulani of West Africa, women do not traditionally wear the veil, while men do. The men's facial covering originates from the belief that such action wards off evil spirits, but most probably relates to protection against the harsh desert sands as well; in any event, it is a firmly established tradition. Men begin wearing a veil at age 25 which conceals their entire face excluding their eyes. This veil is never removed, even in front of family members.
In Indian, Pakistan, Bengldesh and Nepal men wear a 'sehra' on their wedding day. This is a male veil covering the whole face and neck. The sehra is made from either flowers, beads, tinsel, dry leaves or coconuts. The most common sehra is made from fresh marigolds. The groom wears this throughout the day concealing his face even during the wedding ceremony. In India today you can see the groom arriving on a horse with the sehra wrapped around his head.
Read more about this topic: Veil
Famous quotes containing the words male and/or veils:
“[Women’s] apparent endorsement of male supremacy is ... a pathetic striving for self- respect, self-justification, and self-pardon. After fifteen hundred years of subjection to men, Western woman finds it almost unbearable to face the fact that she has been hoodwinked and enslaved by her inferiors—that the master is lesser than the slave.”
—Elizabeth Gould Davis (b. 1910)
“Clouds symbolize the veils that shroud God.”
—Honoré De Balzac (1799–1850)