'Clothes make the man', they say – or the woman, or the city. On the streets of Dhaka these days, one cannot help but be struck by the variety of female attire – the traditional Bangalee nari with her red-and-white sari and dot on the forehead, the fully-veiled 'Muslim' woman, and the 'modern' woman in jeans and short kurta.
Are more of Dhaka's women veiling themselves today than in the past, as casual observation would indicate? This photo essay has its origins in research done by the Department of Women's Studies at Dhaka University, to seek an answer to that question. In the course of the study, we discovered that, while use of the veil is indeed on the rise, the style of the burqa is also being adjusting to new trends and fashions.