As a western Christian grown atheist I answer... because they're ignorant. A great broblem of our "enloghtment", and also of the new equality between men and women, is that appearance and really important aspects are fairly confused. Equal rights for men and women here means women can imitate men and do all those activities that were reserved to men only before, but men cannot do most activities reserved to women; and appearance is what matters mostly (just think women ca now wear pants but men cannot wear skirts) – the image of woman our society gives us is the one of a sexy (and trendy) object, beautiful body and nothing else. Sometimes I think covering the body would make us consider personality and inner beauty more.

You know I was struggling with my viewpoint before I read Zaina's answer; as when I went to Malaysia I met many muslim girls who said they chose to wear it because they liked keeping themselves hidden/'virtuous'. That they were perfectly happy. Then my closest muslim friend chose not to wear it in the street and got shouts of 'slut, whore, bitch'... wherever she went. So ... I think that seals it for me. Isn't it the case that Islam in the beginning was such a champion for women in the society? I recall it being the first religious text to speak to women directly ... and gave women all sorts of rights that they didn't have before. What the hell went wrong? When did it end up like most other major religions? And is this just a feature of every society; that there are weak men who are so afraid by women being free and living normal lives that they punish, mutilate and cover them?

Well I wouldn't care about the whole covering your head part if it would be truly based into free will. Every woman would truly to be able to choose without external pressure and harassment. Yeah woman has the free will to choose to wear wear the veil but not the free will to choose not to wear the weil. If you choose to wear the veil you get pat to your shoulder but if you choose to not to wear weil you get fist into your nose. It's funny that people chant the right to wear veil as human right but many of those same people would be prepared to beat the crap out of woman if she would refuse to wear veil... I wonder where all those rainbows and human rights dissappeared. And people do anything by their "free" will if they're brainwashed enough, like my Somali friend's mother to take her youngest daughter to England to cut her clit off... thanks to some primitive tradition to keep women as fidelious wives. And the whole basis for wearing weil is retarded. Women are supposed to wear them so they don't cause bad, sinful, lustful thoughts in men... “The eyes commit Zina, the hands commit Zina and feet commit Zina and the genitals commit Zina" So you're have to cover yourself because the other half of humankind is too much of cavemen to control their primitive instincts of wanting to hump anything that smells of female... Seriously Christianity and Islam and many other religions give really bleak picture about the evolutionary and development level of men. And not even burkha or abaya will save your from men's harassment. Maybe smearing it with some foul odour and wearing gas mask underneath might work though... I spent 9 months in Saudi-Arabia when I was 16-year-old and got more than once some retarded Mutawat (the lovely omnipotent religious police in there) sexually harassing me... I though they were supposed to be the paragons/protectors of virtuousness... Well seemingly where there is religion there's also hypocricy... and double-standards.

Because in the west we've seen something called "enlightenment". We realized that veils are bad for the position of women in society. It prevents them from becoming equal to men, socially and economically. Therefore we think it's very important for women to be able to live in the same way as men, so they can choose their own life. That's also why many marriages here are out of love rather than forced by the family like in the Middle-East. It's also why more women work in the west, as opposed to the male societies in the Middle-East.

the dignity of the women:well tell me why in the west. men turn out like they are kings,wearing suit,texodus and even taking the lattest fashion,from tip of thier neck to botton of their pant, there is no any single naked body.but in women she dresses up a rap-like cloth.her thigh,stomach,and even the breast are naked?where is the dignity guys and ladies. dont you see that difference!naked women vs well-dressed man.where is the pride of the lady in the west.this kind of westren women believes which is a bout muslim world humilates women,realy and trully they are under humilation.and they have to understand that.not to hear the westren men's tricky opinions.