the prayer of a menstruating woman unless she wears a head-cover.” Al-Tirmidhi said, “The accepted practice among the scholars is that if a woman has reached puberty and prays while any part of her ʿawrah is uncovered, her prayer is invalid.”

These hadiths, together with Allah’s words, “and let them not display their adornment except what normally appears thereof; and let them draw their head-covers over their bosoms, and let them not display their adornment except to their husbands…” (24:31); His words, “O Prophet, tell your wives, your daughters, and the believing women to bring down over themselves part of their outer garments” (33:59); His words, “And when you ask them for anything, ask them from behind a partition; that is purer for your hearts and their hearts” (33:53); as well as ʿA’isha’s report: “We were with the Prophet in the state of consecration; when men passed by us, each of us would let down her head-cover over her face, and when they had gone on we uncovered it”—all of these texts, and many others of similar purport in the Qur’an and the Sunnah, establish that a woman’s entire body is ʿawrah before unrelated men. Nothing of her person may appear in their presence, whether during prayer or at any other time.

When she prays in a place free of unrelated men, however, she may uncover her face in the prayer itself, for the face is not ʿawrah within the bounds of the prayer. Outside the prayer, and in the sight of men who are not her maḥrams, the face is ʿawrah, and they are not permitted to look at it.