Moderately interesting: a story from a woman who used to wear the niqab...

[backscatter712]

3. I think a lot of it is how people are socialized.

In countries with heavily conservative Muslim traditions (Saudi Arabia, for example), women are required by law to wear the niqab. They're raised and told that it's required to protect themselves from men who just can't control themselves. Also, boys are raised to know that they just can't control themselves, which is why women wear burqas. The toxic part of this is that men don't TRY to control themselves - they were told they can't, so you get a lot of scummy men using that as an excuse to be abusive towards women.

On the other hand, in a more free society, women get to dress however they want, be it bikini or nijab, or even topless, and men are raised around these women, and ideally, raised to treat women with respect. So the scumbags don't have an excuse, men behave in a civil way, and there's no need for misogynistic crap like you see in Saudi Arabia.

Granted, the U.S., and even Europe are not perfect in terms of having customs that involve treating women with respect. It's a hell of an improvement over the Daesh That Made It...