The Rayyasi Burga’ (Face cover): is a face cover that is decorated with gold coins.
The Burga’ is a word given to face covers such as Batoolah. Batoolah is a face cover that covers the woman’s face and is made from a thick shiny material called Sheith (Calico). It was brought over from India and is covered with purple dye. It usually has a metallic copper like shine. The Batoolah covers the forehead and down to the chin with two holes for the eyes. It is a very famous face wear in Qatar among the women.
The Batoolah is made in a rectangular shape, an approximately 16 cm by 8 cm. in the middle is a 2 cm fold that looks like a pocket going across vertically, this is where the wooden piece goes that lefts it off the face. After that, the corners are fixed and the eye holes are cut open called (Al-Gardah). It is padded with a light cotton fabric as to not cause painful friction of the Batoolah’s hard material with the face or dye the face with the padded purple dye. The Batoolah has two colored strings on both sides to help tie the Batoolah around the head.
The way the Batoolah is worn is very simple. The woman starts by wearing the head cover (Milfa’) on her head, then puts the Batoolah on her face as a mask and ties the ropes to the back of the head over the milfa’, then a wooden piece is added to the front made of bamboo wood or palm and goes into the middle fold to rise the Batoolah and give room for breathing.
The wooden piece is what separates the Bedouin women from the costal women. The women of the city use this wooden piece and call it (Khzameyah). While Bedouin women don’t wear it and call it (Bakara).
It was very common women’s wear in the older days, however nowadays; only older women wear the Batoolah. Women usually don’t take the Batoolah off except to sleep, pray, and at meals only when no strange men are present (only Mahrums such as father, son, brother, father in law)
When the Batoolah is decorated with golden pieces, it is called (Burga’ Rayyasi) Rayyasi face cover, to distinguish it from the regular not decorated Burga’’ or Batoolah. The Burga’ Rayyasi has a row of golden coins on the forhead part of the Batoolah which are sown on with thread. When the burga’ deteriorates, after a long period of time, the women don’t throw in away or over wash it; instead they remove the golden ornaments and sow them on a new plain Batoolah.
Women usually get their Burga’ Rayyasi when they get married, sown by the older women. It is now considered traditional wear for older women in celebrations and young women don’t wear it today.

Goldsmith:
The smaller circular chips are made seperatly where the goldsmith puts the gold cuts into a mold that is shaped into half a sphere in all different sizes, and hits it with a rounded nail and give it the required shape. On the hand, the coin shaped decorations are called coin prints. It is made by pressing a gold chip onto a printed mold that prints the coin shape into the gold chip. It was used as a decoration piece and the print resembled the currencies circulated at the timein the gulf (Indian, Turkish, English coins). The gold coin would then be used as a decorative piece sown onto the burqa’ .