When I was a boy, and being brought up as a Catholic, all women were obliged to wear a hat inside a Church.  Likewise men had to remove their hat.  At the time, most men no longer wore hats and most women wore a hat with their "Sunday best" so there was no problem.  It did not matter what Protestant Churches did or had as rules - the Catholics had the Eucharist and therefore a real presence of Jesus in the tabernacle(!).  After a while, women stopped wearing hats - it was a fashion thing - but still had to wear a hat in Church.  So they took to putting a handkerchief on their heads!  You still see that a bit in Italy - they cling more to tradition.

And at the all-boys school I went to, part of the uniform was a cap - which seemed to be universally hated.  I had nightmares for years later where I suddenly realized I had this infernal cap on and yanked it off!

The Pope eventually decided that the requirement to wear hats was a tradition thing and decreed that hats were no longer necessary for women although men still should not wear hats.  But then the local Canadian Legion does not want me wearing a hat inside their hall (even a toque in winter!) - so I guess it's not a religion thing anymore in the west.

But in Islam, they go one step further, it's not just in Church but everywhere that women must wear a hijab (head scarf) and some tribes have the custom of wearing niqabs or burqas.  If you read the news from various Muslim countries around the world, they are still struggling with this issue.  The majority seem to say that head coverings are a tradition or custom and not a religious thing.

I often wonder what Muslim women think would happen if they just did not wear a head covering (or niqab etc) - would they go to hell instead of paradise?  Would they be struck by lightning from the sky?  Or would their husband just beat them up?  I guess they don't want to think for themselves or if they do, they don't want to escape from the tyranny - leave Islam, change their name and once in Canada, move to the other side of the country away from their controlling (or worse) husband.

But I digress, my point here is that it was not that long ago that the Catholic Church also required women to wear a head covering.  Hopefully Islam is also moving forward.

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