A discussion regarding the ruling on a woman covering her face.

The student : When I went to Saudi Arabia.

The Shaykh : In every gathering, they bring up the biography. You say that a woman’s face is not an awrah (part of the body that must be covered), and they demand the verse: They think I am contradicting the verse. I tell them, with complete calm, why? What is the jilbab (outer garment)? He said: It means the garment that covers the woman’s face and body. He was wearing a red ghutrah (headscarf) on his head. I said to him: Suppose this ghutrah and this long garment that covers the woman’s face, head, and body, covered you. What would you do? The poor man covered his head and face. I said to him: Walk in front of me, come to me. He was naturally a bit far from me. He said: I cannot. I said: Is this how you rule on your women that when they go out into the streets, they must throw the jilbab over their faces and cannot walk in the streets? So he uncovered his face from the ghutrah and said: We will open two holes. I said to him: Are these two holes that you opened in the Quran? He said: But, so that you can see the road. I said to him: Fine, but you said, and may Allah reward you with good, that you open two holes, but some of your scholars do not permit more than one hole, meaning you show one eye. They bring the weak athar (report) of Ibn Abbas. Despite this, you philosophize about the Shari'ah ruling without evidence. You accuse us and say: How can you, O Shaykh, say that a woman’s face is not an awrah, and the most beautiful part of a woman is her face? Are you satisfied with arguing by the verse and the jilbab, and with your claim that it covers the head and face, without this philosophy that comes back to destroy your position? If you say: No, the face must be covered because the most beautiful part of a woman is her face, then we oppose you with two counter-arguments: This philosophy obligates a ruling that neither you nor anyone before or after you says, which is the obligation for a man to cover his face before a woman, because the most beautiful part of a man is also his face. It is well known that this is permissible. So, leave this philosophy. Let us return to the woman. The most beautiful part of a woman is her face. Fine, and I say: The most beautiful part of a woman is her eye. So blind her. And here is the point: blind her. Send her out into the street to run her errands, and not even one eye of hers is seen, because the most beautiful part of the face is the eye. And it was said long ago: How many daggers are in the...? In the...? What is this called?
The student : ... .

The Shaykh : How many daggers are in the...
The student : The eye sockets.

The Shaykh : In the eye sockets. The eye socket. How many daggers are in the eye socket, or something like that. So the point is that the group are fanatical with a fanaticism similar to the fanaticism of the ignorant, unfortunately.
The student : ... You explain to them that the jilbab is a head covering and does not include the face, for example, but they are not convinced by this statement.

The Shaykh : No, that khimar (head covering) is not...
The student : The khimar, I mean.

The Shaykh : The jilbab is a covering for the entire body. No, it is the jilbab issue that they raise.
The student : But the verse of the jilbab, I mean.

The Shaykh : Yes.