Uncover Your Veil
2 min readWomen of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang like wearing all kinds of head scarves with different designs and colors and every woman has four or five or even more than ten ones. In winter, women wear woolen scarves and fluffy scarves, some of which are so large that they can cover the butt when wrapped on the shoulders, providing warmth as well as decoration. In spring, summer and autumn, women wear colorful gauze head scarves, mainly including “Gidzim”,”Ipek”,”Girip”and “Pairang”. In summer, the silk scarf “Ipek”which is colorful and as thin as cicada’s wings is popular among the Uygur women.
Before the foundation of the People’s Republic of China(PRC), the Sunna forbade the married women to “go public”, so they often wear a veil over a hat or scarf when going out. Veil is always brown or black, and is generally wornabove the waist. After the foundation of the PRC, with the improvement of the status of women, the women of the Uygur and other Islamic ethnic groups were liberated from the veil. But the custom of wearing the veil can still be seen in Kashgar and Yarkand in southern Xinjiang.
The women of the Hui ethnic groupgenerally wear a shawl or a scarf. Young women wear more brightcolored ones while those of the older women are more elegant.After giving birth to a child，Kazak women wear big and wide “Kiymeshek”made of white cloth.Only the face can be seen and the head and waist are covered after wearing the scarf.Young women’s scarves are embroidered with decorative patterns and those of old women are more elegant.
Married women of Kirgiz often wrap a head scarf”Elechek”made of white silk and white cloth，in which，those of the young women often has colorful embroidered patterns or ornaments like beads.Tajik women like to tie square scarf on the hat when going out.When they are walking toward the wind，the head scarf flutter with the wind which presents amorous feelings.
