Because she does not belong to any Islamist group and her family opposed her wearing the niqab (full face-veil), she felt desperate after becoming 32 and no-one had asked to marry her. Although her mother was not fully veiled and her father was not bearded, Hanan, a graduate of a faculty of engineering, insisted on wearing the niqab 12 years ago, as through it, she found her way to express her love and loyalty to Allah. She was as happy wearing the black of the niqab first, as if it were her bridal dress. She tried her best to convince her family that what she was doing was the right thing. But the family felt unhappy and unconvinced. They unsuccessfully tried to make her change her mind. She moved on with her decision and left behind her every advice, thinking it was better for her. Twelve years later, she felt alienated as all her friends wearing hijab (the Islamic headscarf) had got married. She felt that the blackness of her clothing was harshly pressing on her body, as if it were a shroud. Now, her father and mother are dead and she is left alone. Reading in a newspaper, she found a small advertisement: "marriage for fully-face-veiled women only". She called the number written in the ad. "What's your age and university degree," asked the voice on the other side after breaking the ice with hello. "32, faculty of engineering," she replied. "Is there a religious man, who is suitable for my age?" she asked. "Yes, many, but we need a copy of your graduation degree and ID. If you will not be able to come to our office to see the suggested groom, we could go (the groom with a representative from our office), to your home and you will then have to pay LE150 (around $25) as fee for the service," he elaborated. "Is he going to see my face?" she said. "Yes, of course," he replied. Before accepting, she consulted a friend, who encouraged her, then one day, she received the prospective groom at her home. She uncovered her beautiful face so that he could see her. But her beauty didn't move the prospective groom, who had a long beard and was dressed in an Islamic-white galabiya. He asked her to recite a part from the Qur'an as a test, but she failed in remembering the whole part. So he refused to marry her. That was her first direct encounter with the marriage offices, which offer a service for fully-veiled women. "I just need to marry a religious man, who would take care of me," said Hanan, who is still searching for a groom. A recent study stated that women wearing niqab, who belong to an Islamist group, do not face marriage problems because the group offers chances for the female members to marry religious men of the same group. The study has also highlighted that some of these groups promote polygamy as a good deed between members as well as promoting marriage at a young age. The study also stated that fully-veiled women, who do not belong to any Islamic groups, face the most problems in finding a good husband, which is why they find shelter in marriage offices, of which most are not licensed and are spurious. Recently, many advertisements promoting the marriage of such women were written illegally on the walls of city streets, metro stations, and other public places. The advertisements are untrustworthy and of an unknown source. The idea for these ads started few months ago at one mosque between a small group of religious young men, who wanted to help young covered women to find a husband, as they knew that their chances might be poor er for finding a good husband. They spread the idea among friends, family and relatives and they asked an old woman who works with them as khatba (matchmaker) to go to mosques and find unmarried fully-veiled women to approach them help in finding a groom, according to Radio and TV magazine. The matchmaker would see the face of the girl and speak with her, then ask the prospective groom to wait in front of the mosque to see her (wearing her full face-veil) while walking out of the mosque. The suggested groom should not speak to her but only tell the matchmaker if he felt comfortable with her appearance (without seeing her face). And the second step is that the matchmaker takes a photo of the girl (revealing her face) and shows it to him, when he would say yes or no. Soon, the idea developed and was extended to written ads in many streets and on walls. "Some fully-veiled women accept, but I don't like this way. I'd rather live without a husband than be put to this choice," said Aliaa, a full-face-veiled young woman, 23. If Aliaa will refuse, Shaymaa would accept because Shaymaa is in her thirties and she is afraid to lose her chance to have children. "I may accept to speak with the matchmaker and send my photo with her. I see it is Ok, because I won't speak with him or let him see my face. Also before doing this, I will ask the sheikh in the mosque and know his opinion," Shaymaa explained. Although the young men, who thought about this idea were only keen on helping niqab-wearing women, some sheikhs have said that this way is insulting for a girl or woman. But they did not offer a solution for women, who may wait a very long time to get married. "In my opinion, this way of advertising will give the chance for ill-minded people to think that the fully-veiled ladies are old maids, who are desperate and want to marry by any means," stated Sheikh Abdel-Wahab Saad, from el-Kholafaa el-Rashedin Mosque in the Haram (Pyramids) area of Giza. Some sheikhs said that this way might not be genuine or worthy. "Islam respects woman and these ads, if they are real, promote marriage only for fully-veiled girls, which is not accepted in Islam because it differentiate between women. Even if some fully-veiled girls get married by this way, they will always be attacked by people and subjected to gossip and criticism from people who hate fully-veiled ladies," warned Sheikh Moustafa, an Al-Azhar University graduate. "I believe that it would be better if the people who put the ads say, ‘marrying a religious girl' rather than ‘a fully-veiled girl', because religion in the heart is more important than appearance," added the Sheikh. "I'm afraid that some bad girls are using these ads by changing their appearance to the style of the full face-veil and asking those young men to find a husband for them," he charged.
