Editing Veil (section)

=== Antiquity ===
Elite women in ancient [[Mesopotamia]] and in the [[Rise of Macedon|Macedonian]] and [[Persian Empire|Persian empires]] wore the veil as a sign of respectability and high status.<ref name="Ahmed 1992 15">{{cite book|last=Ahmed|first=Leila|title=Women and Gender in Islam|year=1992|publisher=Yale University Press|location=New Haven|page=15}}</ref> The earliest attested reference to veiling is found a [[Middle Assyrian Empire|Middle Assyrian]] law code dating from between 1400 and 1100 BC.<ref>{{cite book |last= Graeber |first= David |author-link= David Graeber |year= 2011 |title= Debt: The First 5000 Years |place= Brooklyn, NY |publisher= Melville House |isbn= 9781933633862 |lccn= 2012462122 |page= [https://archive.org/details/debtfirst5000yea00grae/page/184 184] |url-access= registration |url= https://archive.org/details/debtfirst5000yea00grae/page/184 }}</ref> Assyria had explicit [[sumptuary laws]] detailing which women must veil and which women must not, depending upon the woman's class, rank, and occupation in society.<ref name="Ahmed 1992 15"/> Female slaves and prostitutes were forbidden to veil and faced harsh penalties if they did so.<ref name="El Guindi">{{Cite book|last=El Guindi|first=Fadwa|title=Hijab|publisher=The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World|author2=Sherifa Zahur|year= 2009|doi=10.1093/acref/9780195305135.001.0001|isbn=9780195305135}}</ref> The Middle Assyrian law code states:<blockquote>§ 40. A wife-of-a-man, or [widows], or [Assyrian] women who go out into the main thoroughfare [shall not have] their heads [bare]. […] A prostitute shall not veil herself, her head shall be bare. Whoever sees a veiled prostitute shall seize her, secure witnesses, and bring her to the palace entrance. They shall not take her jewelry; he who has seized her shall take her clothing; they shall strike her 50 blows with rods; they shall pour hot pitch over her head. And if a man should see a veiled prostitute and release her and not bring her to the palace entrance: they shall strike that man 50 blows with rods; the one who informs against him shall take his clothing; they shall pierce his ears, thread (them) on a cord, tie (it) at his back; he shall perform the king's service for one full month. Slave-women shall not veil themselves, and he who should see a veiled slave-woman shall seize her and bring her to the palace entrance: they shall cut off her ears; he who seizes her shall take her clothing.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Women in the Ancient Near East|last=Stol|first=Marten|publisher=De Gruyter|others=Richardson, Helen,, Richardson, M. E. J. (Mervyn Edwin John), 1943–|year=2016|isbn=9781614512639|location=Boston|pages=676|oclc=957696695}}</ref></blockquote>Veiling was thus not only a marker of aristocratic rank, but also served to "differentiate between 'respectable' women and those who were publicly available".<ref name="Ahmed 1992 15" /><ref name="El Guindi" /> The veiling of matrons was also customary in [[ancient Greece]]. Between 550 and 323 B.C.E respectable women in classical Greek society were expected to seclude themselves and wear clothing that concealed them from the eyes of strange men.<ref name=ahmed26>Ahmed 1992, p. 26-28.</ref>

The [[Mycenaean Greece|Mycenaean Greek]] term {{lang|gmy|𐀀𐀢𐀒𐀺𐀒}}, ''a-pu-ko-wo-ko'', possibly meaning "headband makers" or "craftsmen of horse veil", and written in [[Linear B]] syllabic script, is also attested since ca. 1300 BC.<ref>Found on the [[Pylos|PY]] Ab 210 and PY Ad 671 tablets. {{cite web|url=http://www.palaeolexicon.com/ShowWord.aspx?Id=16667|title=The Linear B word a-pu-ko-wo-ko|work=Palaeolexicon. Word study tool of ancient languages}} {{cite web|url=http://minoan.deaditerranean.com/resources/linear-b-sign-groups/a/a-pu-ko-wo-ko/|title=a-pu-ko-wo-ko|work=Minoan Linear A & Mycenaean Linear B|last=Raymoure|first=K.A.|publisher=Deaditerranean}} {{cite web|title=PY 210 Ab (21)|url=https://www2.hf.uio.no/damos/Index/item/chosen_item_id/4218}} {{cite web|title=PY 671 Ad (23)|url=https://www2.hf.uio.no/damos/Index/item/chosen_item_id/4283|website=DĀMOS: Database of Mycenaean at Oslo|publisher=[[University of Oslo]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |first=Jose L. |last=Melena |url=http://campus.usal.es/~revistas_trabajo/index.php/0544-3733/article/viewFile/2565/2606 |title=Index of Mycenaean words }}</ref> In [[ancient Greek]] the word for veil was {{lang|grc|καλύπτρα}} (''kalyptra''; [[Ionic Greek]]: {{lang|grc|καλύπτρη}}, ''kalyptrē''; from the verb {{lang|grc|καλύπτω}}, ''kalyptō'', "I cover").<ref>{{LSJ|ka/luptra&highlight{{=}}veil|καλύπτρα}}, {{LSJ|kalu/ptw&highlight{{=}}veil|καλύπτω|ref}}.</ref>

Classical Greek and [[Hellenistic period|Hellenistic]] statues sometimes depict Greek women with both their head and face covered by a veil. Caroline Galt and Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones have both argued from such representations and literary references that it was commonplace for women (at least those of higher status) in ancient Greece to cover their hair and face in public. [[Roman Empire|Roman]] women were expected to wear veils as a symbol of the husband's authority over his wife; a married woman who omitted the veil was seen as withdrawing herself from marriage. In 166 BC, consul [[Gaius Sulpicius Gallus|Sulpicius Gallus]] divorced his wife because she had left the house unveiled, thus allowing all to see, as he said, what only he should see. Unmarried girls normally did not veil their heads, but matrons did so to show their modesty and chastity, their ''pudicitia''. Veils also protected women against the evil eye, it was thought.<ref>Sebesta, Judith Lynn. "Symbolism in the Costume of the Roman Woman", pp. 46–53 in Judith Lynn Sebesta & [[Larissa Bonfante]], ''The World of Roman Costume'', University of Wisconsin Press 2001, p.48</ref>

A veil called ''flammeum'' was the most prominent feature of the costume worn by the bride at [[Marriage in ancient Rome|Roman weddings]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://people.howstuffworks.com/culture-traditions/cultural-traditions/10-wedding-traditions-with-surprising-origins.htm|title=10 Wedding Traditions With Surprising Origins|last=Fairley Raney|first=Rebecca|date=25 July 2011|website=HowStuffWorks|access-date=18 January 2019}}</ref> The veil was a deep yellow color reminiscent of a candle flame. The ''flammeum'' also evoked the veil of the [[Flamen Dialis|Flaminica Dialis]], the Roman priestess who could not divorce her husband, the [[Flamen Dialis|high priest of Jupiter]], and thus was seen as a good omen for lifelong fidelity to one man. The Romans apparently thought of the bride as being "clouded over with a veil" and connected the verb ''nubere'' (to be married) with ''nubes'', the word for cloud.<ref>{{cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GxGPLju4KEkC&q=flammeum&pg=PA55|pages=55–56|title=The World of Roman Costume|editor=Judith Lynn Sebesta |editor2=Larissa Bonfante|publisher=Univ of Wisconsin Press|year=2001|chapter=The Costume of the Roman Bridge|author=Laetitia La Follette|isbn=9780299138547}}</ref>

Intermixing of populations resulted in a convergence of the cultural practices of Greek, Persian, and Mesopotamian empires and the [[Semitic languages|Semitic-speaking]] peoples of the Middle East.<ref name="El Guindi"/> With the [[spread of Christianity]], the ordinance of [[Christian head covering|headcovering]] by women became normative throughout [[Christendom]] because it was enjoined in the [[Bible]] and by the [[Church Fathers]].<ref name="Hunt2014">{{cite book|last=Hunt|first=Margaret|title=Women in Eighteenth Century Europe|date=11 June 2014|publisher=Taylor & Francis|language=en |isbn=9781317883876|page=58|quote=Today many people associate rules about veiling and headscarves with the Muslim world, but in the eighteenth century they were common among Christians as well, in line with 1 Corinthians 11:4-13 which appears not only to prescribe headcoverings for any women who prays or goes to church, but explicitly to associate it with female subordination, which Islamic veiling traditions do not typically do. Many Christian women wore a head-covering all the time, and certainly when they went outside; those who did not would have been barred from church and likely harassed on the street. … Veils were, of course, required for Catholic nuns, and a veil that actually obscured the face was also a mark of elite status throughout most of Europe. Spanish noblewomen wore them well into the eighteenth century, and so did Venetian women, both elites and non-elites. Across Europe almost any woman who could afford them also wore them to travel.}}</ref><ref name="Gordon2015">{{cite web |last1=Gordon |first1=Greg |date=31 August 2015 |title=Are Head Coverings Really for Today? |url=https://evangelicalfocus.com/yourblog/929/Are-Head-Coverings-Really-for-Today- |access-date=2 May 2022 |publisher=Evangelical Focus |language=English |quote=Hippolytus an early Church Father wrote, “Let all the women have their heads covered.” Others who taught this practice in the Church were, John Calvin [father of the Reformed tradition], Martin Luther [father of the Lutheran tradition], Early Church Fathers, John Wesley [father of the Methodist tradition], Matthew Henry [Presbyterian theologian] to name just a few. We must remind ourselves that until the twentieth century, virtually all Christian women wore head coverings.}}</ref> Veiling and seclusion of women appear to have established themselves among Jews and Christians, before spreading to urban Arabs of the upper classes and eventually among the urban masses.<ref name="El Guindi"/> In the rural areas it was common to cover the hair, but not the face.<ref name="El Guindi"/>