By Francesca Lungarotti
There is a unique beauty that perhaps only photography can convey, transcending and overcoming religious social concepts and customs. This beauty is often feminine. Photography permits us to experience beauty through the eyes and faces of people immersed in their own customs and traditions. In many parts of the world, female figures often reveal themselves and hide themselves at the same time, concealing for various religious and cultural reasons parts of themselves that in many other cultures would be unapologetically exposed: hair, body, arms, and legs. This incredible dichotomy that in many ways divides the world also introduces us to wonderful and beautiful women endowed with a heightened human charisma and a loving presence. As they reveal themselves in stolen moments, these beautiful women appear yearning to emerge even more. This powerful presence is expressed and sublimated by photographs, splendid and intense, that portray women wearing the chador – a large garment worn as a head covering, veil, and shawl.
Chador. Tuareg women in Tombouctou. 
Nubian Woman. Dongola. Sudan. 
Iran. Yazd. Old Town. Daily Life. 
Chador. Portrait of Turkish Woman. Central Anatolia, Turkey. 
Chador. Female Students In A High School In Jogijakarta. Java, Indonesia. 
Chador. Portrait of Nubian Woman. El Bab, Sudan. 
Iran, Kerman, Friday mosque. 
Chador. Decorations On The Hands. Tamnar, Sudan. 
Chador. Nubian Woman Cooking. Tombos, Sudan. 
Chador. Young Nubian Mother In El Bab, Sudan. 
Chador. Women Wrapped In Chador On A Street In Kairouan. Tunisia. 
Chador. Nubian girl. Wadi Milk, Sudan. 
Chador. Young Woman Wrapped In Her Dress. Thula, Yemen. 
Chador. Portrait of a Woman. Central Anatolia, Turkey. 
Chador. Young Peasant Woman. Central Anatolia, Turkey. 
Chador. A Turkish Woman Looks Out of the Window. Agzikarahan, Turkey.
UIG contributing photographer Giovanni Mereghetti has for much of his career traveled to and documented cultures, traditions and communities often misunderstood and disregarded.
All images in this post ©Giovanni Mereghetti. All images featured in this post and on Kaleidoscope are available for licensing. Please contact us at info@universalimagesgroup.com