Covering faces is indeed a religious thing, but not abt distractimg men and most dont cover their faces just heads, but wardrobe like mc's and princess jasmine isn't real that is just dancer clothes, and in a desert environment you cover your face because of sand and only if there is heavy wind or sandstorm. Plus harem's weren't "plaything" at least some form of respect existed.
I just find this lacking I'm world building, they could've just removed her righteous type of monologue, that is completely unnecessary to the plot, and built the "desert kingdom" on a specific culture while still making it fantasy-ish (which is total bs in this case since neither persia nor ottoman empire were so dry to build there capital in the actual desert, sand doesn't hold buildings ffs...)
This all falls back to the effect of orientalism and lumping all other non white history as one
Idk, something weird with either the fl, story or worldbuilding thats bugging me