In other cities such as Dammam and Abha, women are not required to wear it by law but it remains de facto obligatory.
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However, the niqab is an important part of Saudi culture and in most Saudi cities (including Riyadh, Mecca, Medina, Abha, etc.) the vast majority of women cover their faces.
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Aishah Azmi (born 1982) is a British Muslim woman who came to public attention in 2006 after being suspended and then dismissed from her position as a classroom assistant in a Church of England faith school for refusing to take off her niqab (face veil) when required to work in a classroom alongside a male teacher.
In October 2009, Tantawy launched a campaign against the niqab (the full-face veil which covers the entire body except for the eyes, increasingly worn by women in Egypt) by personally removing the niqab of a teenage girl (after she failed to remove it) at a secondary school affiliated to Al-Azhar University, which he was touring in Cairo's Madinet Nasr suburb, much to the shock of all concerned.
She has spoken in support of the niqab in numerous British media, including The Daily Telegraph, BBC News, The Times Online, BBC Radio 4's The Moral Maze and Channel 4’s Undercover Mosque series; as well as speaking to Muslim and international media outlets, such as for Islam Channel and AIM TV.
For example, only one day after news of Tantawi’s possible ban hit the media, Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his right-wing coalition, the anti-immigration Northern League party, or the Lega Nord presented a proposal to ban the niqāb.