ARABNEWS by Tanya Cariina Hsu who is a British political analyst specializing in US-Saudi foreign policy

Sunday 4 November 2012

DURING a recent dinner conversation in London I was asked, as is predictably guaranteed, about Saudi Arabia, the abaya and hijab. “A mark of oppression and ignorance,” bemoaned a professor of history. “Their tailored clothes adorned with dangerously thin strips of cloth tied around their necks,” the history professors surely deserved a proper lesson of the past.

An abaya was plainly uncomfortable for women, they insisted. Roasting in their wool three-piece suits by an early-season open fire with their now-full waistlines being crushed by further perilous straps of leather restricting their breathing capacity, it was a bit hypocritical to claim Saudi women were “obviously” not dressed for comfort.

The earliest records show that it was the Chinese who kept women veiled thousands of years ago, extending the custom throughout multiple dynasties. White was the preferred color, red reserved for weddings as is still done today. The reason for Chinese concealment was wealth: Hiding one’s jewelry and finely embroidered silk clothes from potential thieves was a necessity. Women of a certain societal class were forbidden to leave home without being covered from head to toe. For members of the aristocracy, they additionally were hidden underneath layers of curtains surrounding carriages suspended upon wooden poles, hoisted by servants. Even if merely traveling to another house next door, women were never seen. Moreover, every man, woman and child on the street was required to turn and look away from the procession until it had passed, under penalty of death. Until the end of the Qing dynasty in the 20th century, this process remained the custom in China.
Hittite and Persian women also dressed by status, the veil the most visible classification. Under ancient Assyrian law, upper-class women were required to veil, whereas punishments were imposed upon commoners who covered-for emulating a noblewoman. In the Tannaitic period in Jewish history (0-200 CE) a woman’s uncovered hair was considered ‘nudity’, and she would be heavily fined if not veiled.

read more here:

http://www.arabnews.com/west%E2%80%99s-misconception-about-hijab