A veil is an article of clothing, worn almost exclusively by women, that is intended to cover some part of the head or face.
One view is that as a religious item, it is intended to show honor to an object or space. The actual sociocultural, psychological, and sociosexual functions of veils have not been studied extensively but most likely include the maintenance of social distance and the communication of social status and cultural identity. In Islamic society, various forms of the veil have been adopted from the Arab culture in which Islam arose.
Read more about Veil: History, Religion, Hats, Wedding Veils, Dance, Courtesans, Male Veils, Etymology
Famous quotes containing the word veil:
“If the veil were withdrawn from the sanctuary of domestic life, and man could look upon the fear, the loathing, the detestations which his tyranny and reckless gratification of self has caused to take the place of confiding love, which placed a woman in his power, he would shudder at the hideous wrong of the present regulations of the domestic abode.”
—Lydia Jane Pierson, U.S. women’s rights activist and corresponding editor of The Woman’s Advocate. The Woman’s Advocate, represented in The Lily, pp. 117-8 (1855-1858 or 1860)
“In such a night, when passing clouds give place,
Or thinly veil the heaven’s mysterious face;
When in some river, overhung with green,
The waving moon and trembling leaves are seen;”
—Anne Finch, Countess Of Winchilsea (1661–1720)
“I am afraid that old women are more skeptical in their most secret heart of hearts than any man: they believe in the superficiality of existence as in its essence, and all virtue and profundity is to them merely a veil over this “truth,” a most welcome veil over a pudendum—and so a matter of decency and modesty, and nothing else.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)