Women of Tunisia, 1913

      Far be it from me to claim an intricate knowledge of the fine points of Islamic law. However, I understand that men are required to cover themselves from at least the navel to the knee, and women all except their hands and face. For women, I gather that the head scarf is obligatory, but the face veil optional, its use dependent on custom. In rural areas, where women need to work extensively outside the home, it is rarer than in the cities. You will find many websites contrasting the bare heads of educated Muslim women in the 1960s and '70s with their scarf-covered sisters of today. But what was it like a hundred or so years ago? Well, the whole of the January 1914 issue of the National Geographic was given over to an account of North Africa, especially Tunisia, by a Frank Edward Johnson, and although women were only part of the story, they did appear in many of the photographs. As far as I can tell, the photographers were male. In other words, it is not as if some female photographer gained access to naïve inhabitants of the harem.