Covering Of Face

Wherever we within the islamic world we find the women covering themselves to various degrees, in Countries like Saudi Arabia you will find women who are entirely covered from head to toe with the only things exposed being, their eyes.
Now what we see in other countries like India and UAE you find women who cover except for their faces and hands along with the women that I mentioned in the former example.
Now the question will surely arise, why the difference?

Is one thing better than the other?
What are these differences based on?

Well, if we refer to the texts, we find the people who support the opinion of covering their faces and hands along with everything else will quote the following ayahs of the Qur’an: chapter 4 verse 31 and chapter 33 verse 59.

Both these ayahs suggest that the women draw a cloak or a non see through cloth of covering over their bodies, however it does not specify if the face should be covered or not, some scholars on the basis of these ayahs have made it a recommended act for women to have their faces and hands covered as well, while the other opinion which is a bit more popular cites the Ahadith of Prophet Muhammad (saw) from books like Sahih Muslim and Sunan Abu Dawood on the basis of which Sheikh Albani gave the fatwa that women are allowed to reveal their faces and hands, while the matter as of now is completely on the choice of the woman, she can chose to follow any of these rulings, there is no scene of one act being more virtuous than the other. Also scholars have supported this fatwa because in Hajj women are instructed not to cover their faces, given that what you do in Hajj is not haram if you do outside of Hajj so exposing the face and hands is absolutely fine.

And Allah knows best.