The Souk Al Hamidiyyah is a vibrant marketplace where one can buy everything imaginable from spices, candies, textiles, shoes, to gold jewellery, carpets, woodcarvings, books and … lingerie. It is located in the old part of Damascus. Its mazelike roads end in an open square that leads to the Umayyad Mosque. Surrounded by Roman ruins and old city walls, the market is a legacy of its rich history. The Souk is the main location of this documentary. As veiled women walk around the market, bargaining, socializing, a dominant theme surfaces. Lingerie is one of the most purchased of goods. Why?

"The battery of this underwear is dead," the 9-year-old sales boy says as he demonstrates a musical underwear that has a plastic "face" of Tweety Bird at its front. The women wear such lingerie. They have to, if they want to remain the only wife of their husband.

We follow veiled women of Damascus, as they bargain and shop for lingerie, freely, openly and with no reservations. The stalls of the market display publicly lingerie such as these: underwear with flashing lights, underwear with musical buttons attached to the front, that play latest Arabic pop songs and sometimes even Christmas tunes, underwear with zippers, underwear with feathers and crotch less underwear. Bras with tassels and beads, belly dancing outfits and other sexy lingerie, even ones that resemble leather dominatrix outfits.

Interviews with the salesmen (all salespeople are males) of the market give us information about the quantity of lingerie bought, the occasions for it, and the purchaser's profiles. There are several interviews with local women of Damascus, filmed in their homes. The women in this film are from the common working class. They are uneducated housewives who live around the old city of Damascus near the market.

Interviews with the women introduce the main theme of the documentary; women live in a marital environment that is potentially open to competitors-new wives. In order for the women to prevent their husband from marrying a new wife or wives, they have to do all that is possible to please him and to satisfy his demands. As one of the women says:" …a woman has to take care of herself in every way, so that her husband would not remarry", and by that she means wearing sexy and provocative lingerie. She says that if her husband finds out she has shown her face to the camera, he would hit her.

Another woman explains the Islamic religious rules and their application in marriage (Polygamy is permissible in Islam, men have to furnish separate homes for each wife…).

The film introduces the viewer to Damascus and the famous market. A brief narration lays the theme of the film and the story develops with lingerie shopping scenes at the market, bargaining activities, interviews and gatherings with the women. We get a peak into the private lingerie drawers of the women. We join in to their waxing and beautifying sessions, and we get to hear about their private lives.

Veils Uncovered poses some deep questions into the underlying world behind the veil and suggests some intriguing and thought provoking answers that give us insight into this culture. We are left with more questions and a thirst to understand more the dynamics of this complex world.