why they veil; why we should leave it alone

"the "veil as body bag" notion is both mistaken and dangerous. There is no surer way to drive the Islamic world into the arms of the fundamentalists than to force Western feminism on a newly conquered Muslim country..."

Veiling is embraced by millions of Muslim men and women as one of the keys to their way of life. They are not mistaken...

...villages in Afghanistan are organized into kin-oriented areas, and the veil needs wearing only when a woman is among men from outside of her kin group...

In the modern Middle East, networks of kin are still the foundation of wealth, security, and personal happiness.

...when Muslim women veil, they are saving themselves for marriage to the men of their own kin group.

the contemporary Muslim fundamentalist movement... was started by students -- men and women -- at Egyptian universities who spontaneously adopted a code of Islamic decorum in mixed company. In keeping with that code, and despite government attempts to forbid it, Egyptian college women began to don the veil. The practice soon spread (and along with it, the ideology of Islamic fundamentalism) to legions of educated working women in Egypt's cities...

these women... had free access to education and modern careers. They put on the veil precisely as a way of enjoying these modern innovations -- without also endangering their marriage prospects, or their family's honor, in the new, mixed-sex environment...

In a world where satisfaction in life is predicated on the honor, strength, and unity of the kin group, the veil makes sense... the United States ought not to be in the business of browbeating Muslim women out of their veils, much less reforming the Middle Eastern kinship system."