Although Zeitouna and her husband Maksud cannot hear the Islamic call to prayer from their village in the suburbs of Moscow, but they always kneel when the hours of prayer come round.

They say Islam has been in the family for many centuries.

“We freely follow all the rites of Islam here in Russia. I can walk in the streets wearing Hijab and I don’t care about the comments that people make,” says Zeitouna.

Every summer, Zeitouna and her husband go to their dacha to water the flowers and grow vegetables. But Zeitouna was not always a housewife – she had a career spanning 35 years that is limited to men in many countries. She worked as an engineer in the Moscow Metro.

“My work was not limited to measurement taking and graphics activities, but extended to construction as well. That experience helped me in building this house.”

She says she was initially advised not to wear Hijab, but later people came to terms with it.

“Firstly some of them said it would be better to change my image. But then they saw that I keep the fast, they understood that it is not simply clothes, and no one objected since then,” says Zeitouna.

Hijabs in Russia have become more frequent, worn by women from traditionally Muslim countries and by Russians who follow Islam.