A Saudi Woman Embarks on a 'Faceless Experiment'

Rana Jarbou is conducting an experiment, using herself as the guinea pig. For one full week, the 30-year-old resident of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, is wearing the niqab when she leaves home — a traditional form of dress that conceals all of a woman’s hair and her face except for her eyes. Jarbou is chronicling the experience on her blog, Desert Rain.

Jarbou, a Saudi native who is writing a book about graffiti in Arab countries, normally wears an abaya (or robe) and usually a headscarf when she goes about her daily business. That isn’t always enough to suit the people around her in the Saudi capital, where she grew up and is living again after spending several years in Lebanon, Bahrain, and the U.S.