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HistoryFirst recorded instance of veiling for women is recorded in an Assyrian legal text from the 13th century BC which restricted its use to noble women and forbade prostitutes and common women from adopting it. Greek texts have also spoken of veiling and seclusion of women being practiced among the Persian elite and statues from Persepolis depict women both veiled and unveiled, and it seems to be regarded as an attribute of higher status. For many centuries, until around 1175, Anglo-Saxon and then Anglo-Norman women, with the exception of young unmarried girls, wore veils that entirely covered their hair, and often their necks up to their chins. Only in the Tudor period (1485), when hoods became increasingly popular, veils of this type became less common. For centuries, women have worn sheer veils, but only under certain circumstances. Sometimes a veil of this type was draped over and pinned to the bonnet or hat of a woman in mourning, especially at the funeral and during the subsequent period of "high mourning". They would also have been used, as an alternative to a mask, as a simple method of hiding the identity of a woman who was traveling to meet a lover, or doing anything she didn't want other people to find out about. More pragmatically, veils were also sometimes worn to protect the complexion from sun and wind damage (when un-tanned skin was fashionable), or to keep dust out of a woman's face.
Veils with religious significanceIn Judaism and Christianity the concept of covering the head was associated with propriety and can be witnessed in all depictions of Mary the Mother of Christ, and was a common practice with Church-going women until the 1960s.
Catholic ceremonial veils
Prior to the Second Vatican Council, it was customary in most places for women to wear a head covering in the form of a scarf, cap, veil or hat when entering a church, just as it was and is still customary for men to remove their hat as a sign of respect. One reason for this practice is a passage from 1 Corinthians 11 where St. Paul writes: 4 Any man who prays or prophesies with his head covered brings shame upon his head. 5 But any woman who prays or prophesies with her head unveiled brings shame upon her head, for it is one and the same thing as if she had had her head shaved. 6 For if a woman does not have her head veiled, she may as well have her hair cut off. But if it is shameful for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, then she should wear a veil. 7 A man, on the other hand, should not cover his head, because he is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man. 8 For man did not come from woman, but woman from man; 9 nor was man created for woman, but woman for man; 10 for this reason a woman should have a sign of authority on her head, because of the angels.(New American Bible translation)
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