Jewish Women and Headcoverings

Submitted by Roger (United States), Mar 27, 2008 at 23:00

Jewish law also has its demands on a woman's modesty. It is considered part of the modesty laws for women in Orthodox Judaism to wear a head covering over her hair. Either a simple scarf or a wig is worn, covering a women's hair. The scarf was sometines referred to as a "shmatte'" in Yiddish and the wig referred to as a "shaitle".

Moslems are hardly original in their adoption of a Jewish custom, but as usual they take it to an extreme. There was never the demand in Jewish law to force a woman to cover herself from head to toe. This is the total body garment that muslim women sometimes wear called the "niqab". Also, the Chador, the traditional head-only covering muslim women wear, covers their entire head and neck up to the chin.

It might be a legitimate question to ask how women would fare if Israel became a theocracy. However, in any event, there was never a "modesty police" in Jewish history, even during the 400 years of the existence of the ancient "land of Israel", which was both a kingdom and a theocracy. Jewish law was noted for its leniency, not Sharia law's violence and intolerance.

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