Just for the record on this: there are a number of letters published in the Arab News online on this subject. One of interest is (an abbreviated version) from a Mr. Rashid M. Al Homaid, currently living in Tucson:
Re veiling: generally credited to Cyrus the Great, founder of the Persian empire, who asked his women to cover themselves as a 'protection'. First, veiling was only for royal or aristocratic women, but gradually it was adopted by lower-class women to create the impression that they were from high-born families.
Mr. Al Homaid makes the sensible points that since Tunisia just recently refused schools admission to covered women, and that neither Egypt or Turkey permit them in their Parliaments, Islam should correct itself before criticizing others. He asserts that the veil is a cultural, not a religious, construct, and that in North Africa, for example, some tribes (Touareg) have males covering their faces, while their women do not. He opines that those who 'pretend that the veil protects women from sin are naive'.
There are a couple of letters from Muslims saying that in these days of heightened suspicion, fully-covered figures may not be women at all, but men disguised thus for any nefarious purpose. (That's not without precedent in a minor way, since some Saudi men have found it effective in managing illicit love trysts, as well as some robbers and burglars finding the veil jolly handy in going about their business!)
