In egypt's 100-year-long debate over female head-coverings, the veil has been put off and on as fast as hemlines in Paris have gone up and down. Feminists in the 1920s threw it off; by the 1970s so had most Egyptian women. But it has crept back, as a wave of religiosity has prompted many to embrace a more distinctively Muslim look. Most Egyptian women are again under cover, but adopt a range of styles, from the black ntqab, often worn with gloves, leaving just a slit for the eyes, to the shoulder-enveloping khimar, to lighter novelties such as a colourful Spanish-style scarf wrapped around hair tied in a bun, leaving a jaunty fringe dangling to the neck.
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