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Having travelled extensively throughout my life it has only become recently in adulthood that there are certain customs to which you must abide by when travelling in or through certain countries. The head scarf or hijab in one such custom and as a man I have not thought much about until recently.

I remember as a child travelling through certain countries (Morrocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Israel, Syria and Lebanon) female members of my family wearing head scarfs. As a child I was unsure if this was for practical or legal reasons.

Planning an extensive vacation to a large number of countries in North Africa and the Middle East is there a definitive list of countries to which woman are accustomed to wear a head scarf?

I have found this image from a simple Google search but is there any actual documented governmental list or advice stating what the local customs are for women?

Wikipedia Image

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    The Wikipedia page says it all: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hijab_by_country
    – Nean Der Thal
    Commented Mar 11, 2015 at 15:11
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    The breakdown would have to be more than just a country-by-country level. In Uzbekistan you can easily get away with wearing a mini-skirt in the capital, but it won't be warmly accepted in small villages. Likewise in Israel you can wear a bikini anywhere in Tel Aviv, but could easily violate local customs by doing the same in a heavily religious neighborhood.
    – JonathanReez ♦
    Commented Mar 11, 2015 at 15:18
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    Voted to close this question as too broad: there are literally hundreds of subregions with different customs on what is acceptable to wear. It would be much better to ask a question about individual countries.
    – JonathanReez ♦
    Commented Mar 11, 2015 at 15:21
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    Moreover, I think in many cases the expectations are very subtle and can depend on who the woman is, what they're doing, where they go, etc. For example, Saudi Arabia is marked in dark green on the map, indicating that headscarves are "mandatory", but a few weeks ago we learned that such a requirement is at least not absolute, and it's reported that in practice (non-Muslim?) Western women generally don't have to wear headscarves there. So I'd despair of there being a "definitive" answer to this.
    – Nate Eldredge
    Commented Mar 11, 2015 at 15:27
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    Who's in charge of constructing such a list? If not the Wiki, then who keeps an authoritative list to which someone would attach credibility? Too broad. Close voted.
    – Gayot Fow
    Commented Mar 11, 2015 at 16:15

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