catastrofie
As far as I know muslim women wear them because their husbands or the government want to regard them as second class citizens, correct me if i'm wrong, but they're basically submitting the women and putting them under a type of modesty suppression.
Baruch Hashem, I happen to know that you are very mistaken. The purposes of a veil for a Muslima are the same as the purpose of the rest of her clothing, which is hajaba (modest), and also the same as the purposes for the tzanuah (modest) clothing of a Jewish woman:
(1) It identifies her as belonging to her faith and people;
(2) It shields her from the prying eyes of those who would objectify her;
(3) It marks her as a woman of high status;
(4) It allows her to demonstrate her identity through her actions and words rather than through her physical appearance;
(5) It protects her from the harsh sun (far more relevant in the Middle East, the birthplace of both Judaism and Islam, than in the colder places to which both have spread);
(6) It is more likely that she will be unmolested by those who would seek to subjugate her to their own base desires, because her beauty is not on display;
A Muslima's modest clothing, just like a Jewess's modest clothing, has actually NOTHING to do with denigration, subjugation, or turning a woman into a second-class citizen or an object, but exactly the reverse!
catastrofie
If your a yeshiva bochur and your studying gamara all day and your a good Jew, you dont want to go out into the streets and suddenly see something that may lead you to sin, i've had problems with this many times and so have the men I know.
If you don't like the way a woman looks, look at your shoes or stick your nose in a Chumash. It's YOUR problem as a man, not OURS. Our modesty is for our own benefit. Hashem desires that you learn self-control, not that we imprison ourselves. I say this as a person who chooses to elevate herself, in part, through modest clothing and covered hair: This is for demonstrating modesty before G*D, not before you. The fact that you benefit from it is entirely beside the point. Even if there were no men left on earth, a tzanuah (modest woman) would still be covered -- just as we are at all-woman retreats, vacations, and visits with female-only groups of friends!
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