Romanpoet wrote:
] I'll take a shot at an attempt to understand it. From what I
] understand (mostly from 3rd party academic analysises of the
] religious texts), that women would want to be beautiful and
] the men denying them this fits well with the Koran.

There was an NYT story recently that discussed veiling in the context marrying cousins. Most people in these societies marry within their family. If women are veiled then the only people who know what they look like are insiders - family members who might have come over for dinner. Therefore insiders don't have to compete with outsiders for their hand in marriage.

Western cultures used to do this too. The bible also requires veiling of women. However, the practice was apparently dropped because a couple of important priests decided that by forcing people to marry outside of their families would create more complex interrelationships between people and therefore make people more peaceful.

RE: BBC NEWS | World | Middle East | Iran tells women to button up