Veiling of women in Ancient Greece has largely been ignored by modern scholars as it’s too closely associated with Islam. According to this book, to admit that ancient Greek women were habitually veiled would place Greece with the “Oriental Other”, ie. the Arab or Muslim world that the West has largely demonized as a political tool. Also perhaps, if Ancient Greeks are seen as part of the East with similarities in customs and dress closely associated with the Islamic/Eastern world, then maybe democracy by default would also be considered an Eastern construct, not Western, by the general population. That would make the modern divisions between the Islamic East and West, divisions that for too long have been used as tools to engage in wars for resources, a gray area… and the world would learn that the notion that only the Islamic world’s women have veiled themselves, has been a lie.
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