IndigoChild5559
Loving God and my neighbor as myself.
In every culture in the world, there is a cultural understanding of certain dress that indicates modesty, and other dress that indicates availability for sex (immodesty). Even in cultures where people are completely nude, modesty is indicated by certain tattoos. IOW, non-verbal communication is understood between people in a given culture with regards to whether a woman is available for sex or not.In both Judaism and early Christianity, women had to keep their hair covered as well.
You are correct, metis, that in the second Temple period in the Levant, Christian and Jewish culture understood feminine modesty to include the covering of the head with cloth. Today's culture has different non-verbal communication, where it is not immodest to leave the head uncovered. The exception today would be if you are an Orthodox Jewish woman and married -- then you would cover your hair with i.e. a sheitl (a wig).
There was a Muslim woman I met at the university that has always been an inspiration to me. She adjusted her modesty standards according to the community she was in. When she was in Lebanon, she wore Lebanese fair, including a hijab. When at the university in the States, she wore elegant and modest American clothing with no hijab. She did all of this with her family's approval of course.
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