Hijab: origin of the Muslim headware

[cema]

[National Post]

This headgear was invented in the early 1970s by Mussa Sadr, an Iranian mullah who had won the leadership of the Lebanese Shiite community.
[...]
Sadr's idea was that, by wearing the headgear, Shiite women would be clearly marked out, and thus spared sexual harassment, and rape, by Yasser Arafat's Palestinian gunmen who at the time controlled southern Lebanon.

Comments

[bbb.livejournal.com]

Класс какой! Неужели это правда?

[cema.livejournal.com]

Чёрт его знает. Порыться надо.

[cema.livejournal.com]

Some more resources on hijab.

• Examining the realities and nuances of hijab in Islam and Muslim cultures [muslimedia], a book review. Veil: Modesty, Privacy and Resistance by Fadwa El Guindi. Pub: Berg, Oxford, UK, and New York, USA, 1999. Pp: 241. Pbk: £14.99.

In the 1970’s, ‘the veil’ was perceived as making a comeback among educated young Muslim women
[...]
there is little detailed modern academic scholarship on Muslim women’s dress (hijab)
[...]
El Guindi shows that ‘veiling’, often assumed to have entered Islam via Byzantine or Persian influence, had different meanings in ancient cultures as well.

• The face veil - not originally Islamic and the kiss of death for Da'wah in the West, argues concerned Muslim convert Michael Young, with reference to the works of Dr Hassan Al-Turabi, Quran translator Mohammad Marmaduke Pickthall and other Islamic scholars. [islamfortoday]

Still very little reliable and authoritative information on the subject.