"‘World Hijab Day’ insults millions of women and girls"

[J842P]

Anyone who wants the inside story -- really the inside -- on Muslim face coverings -- should read Betty Mahmoody's Not Without My Daughter, which was filmed with Sally Field. It's been a few years, so I forget if she was discussing the niqab or the burka (I think it was the burka), but her Muslim husband's female relations gave her one to wear after he insisted that she wear it, while they were in Iran. Not only did she find a loss of dignity, agency, and identity in the burka, she found a lot of old mucus from the previous wearer. I remember putting the book down and waiting for my head to stop spinning before I could read more. Time to blow a little plastic trumpet for heirlooms & tradition & all that.

Iranians generally don't cover their face as a part of Islamic dress. Women are required to cover their hair, and particular conservative/traditional women will use the chador, which a sort a big cloak (and is very Iranian, probably dating back to at least the Achaemenid times).

Neither the burka nor the niqab are commonly used in Iran. They are more of a Salafist, Sunni Muslim thing. Although I suppose it is possible that this women married into a family where this was expected, but it would be very atypical.

 

[DBT]

My take on all this is that originally men wanted to hide their property so it wouldn't attract rival males. It also said, "This is mine."

I think that's probably a big part of it.