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Photo: Bedouin Woman
Oman Profile • Maps • Photo Gallery
Photo: Veiled Bedouin woman
WALLPAPER
Photograph by James L. Stanfield
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
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