All women basically cover here.  The exception would be foreigners, who will even sometimes wear a hijaab or scarf. The majority of Muslim women wear black AND niqaab. In some of the more western stores and offices women working there do not wear niqaab and may wear a non black scarf, but most of the women you will see on the street do wear black and niqaab, masha Allah.


There are still a lot of men here who wear thawbs, masha Allah. You will also see men dressed in more western clothing (pants, button down shirts, etc).


6 Responses

  1. I have no problems wearing niqab, as I have wanted to fr a while; but did not want to stand out here in the US. But I really do not like wearing black.
    If you wear other colors, like pink, purple, green, etc. Will people stare at you or give you a hard time?

    • Black is beautiful. LOL. Well, I guess maybe not for everyone. But in the last comment, I mentioned that although you may see sisters in other colors from time to time, you will stick out wearing anything but black (except for maybe wearing a dark blue/brown).

      I don’t think you will be given a hard time for wearing other colors, but you may get some stares just because you stick out.

  2. Another question I have is. Do all women wear the Abayah? Do you have to or is it just whats most common. Sometimes I wear a long dress, with jeans under. Is that not ok for Yemen?

    • Honestly, you will definitely feel out of place without an overgarment here and probably if you don’t wear black. When people see women here going out, they refer to it as a “sea of black.” You will see women in other colors as well, but that’s a small, small minority.

      The majority of women wear black overgarments, hijaab AND niqaab.

      You will see women without a niqaab here (but they are the minority) and I have seen foreigners without hijaab (some do wear at least an overgarment out of respect (funny thing is they don’t usually wear a scarf, which to me is only half making an effort to be respectful, no offense). I have seen maybe a few native Yemenis (well, at least Arabi, can’t really say if they were Yemeni) in jeans, but that’s rare.

  3. Are the clothing there like the clothing in Afghanistan?

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