Dom, I really eyenojd this article. I spent a month in the Middle East (Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt) in the summer of 2006, and I quickly learned a lot about the hijab. From my own knowledge, I think the reasons differ for why women wear the hijab depending on their location. The women I spoke to wore their veils (there was a wide variety of coverings from just head scarfs to full-body veils without eye slits) for many reasons, ranging from the fact that a veil offered women a sort of protection from the advances of men’ to women being forced to wear them by very religious/traditional husbands/fathers.What I liked about the article is that it was offering a reason why women choose to remain veiled once in North America or Europe. I think that, for a lot of these women, it offers a sense of modesty that is often lost in our culture. Not only are they keeping a part of their body hidden from the world, but the clothing they wear is different too less form fitting and revealing. An important part of why girls and women decide to wear a veil is because they have a choice, not many women do in Arab countries, it’s just a given that you will wear some sort of head covering when out in public. It also is really affected by the type of background these women come from, if they’re coming from less traditional families the type of head covering they would wear is very different, with a variety of colour options and styles so it can be worn more as an accessory of sorts instead of the full head coverings, which I often heard referred to as prisons’.Also, I think women who have grown up in Arab countries view the hijab differently than women who have either never lived in those countries or left at a young age. If they never had to experience the political connotation of what the hijab meant during the extremist movements of the 1980s in the Middle East or the remnants of those governments still in power today, it would have a completely different meaning to them.

It is insulting to men to think they’re not capable of controlling themselves unless a woman is encased in a shroud. Besides, estimates (there are no official statistics for obvious reasons) by NGOs are that women in societies where they are required to dress in a certain way have much higher levels of sexual assault and rape. Basically, men who respect women don’t rape them.

As for it being a means to stop men’s lustful thoughts, not only is that demeaning to men but, if those men cannot control their own bodies surely it is up to them to find a way to stop those thoughts without resorting to forcing others to take action.

Thanks Barbara – always nice to have new people join the conversation. 🙂

Cheers Dennis 🙂 For several hours I’ve been meaning to make a small change to the last part of post so that I endorse men’s freedom too – I will do it now!

Thanks Diana 🙂