This is sort of a follow-up post to the previous one about Asian women hiding from the sun for cosmetic purposes. There’s quite a body of work studying veiled women and vitamin D deficiency. I get so focused on the parts of the world that are naturally deprived of vitamin D due to latitude I guess I sometimes forget about those deprived of vitamin D due to cultural circumstances.

Vitamin D deficiency in veiled or dark-skinned pregnant women

Vitamin D deficiency in mothers of infants with rickets

A study of Arab women in Denmark (Calcif Tissue Int 2000; 66: 419-424) by researchers Glerup, Mikkelsen, Poulsen and others found that a group of Arab women suffering from muscle pain and weakness were suffering from a deficiency of vitamin D, which improved after three months of vitamin D therapy.
High prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among pregnant women and their newborns in northern India

“Almost every woman I see has osteomalacia,” Samar says. “Their bones are softening due to a lack of Vitamin D. They survive on a diet of tea and naan because they can’t afford eggs and milk and, to complicate matters, their burqas and veils deprive them of sunshine.