How people in Muslim countries prefer women to dress in public - Pew
Interesting attitudes in different countries with similar cultures.
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/01/08/what-is-appropriate-attire-for-women-in-muslim-countries/
An important issue in the Muslim world is how women should dress in public. A recent survey from the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research conducted in seven Muslim-majority countries (Tunisia, Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey), finds that most people prefer that a woman completely cover her hair, but not necessarily her face. Only in Turkey and Lebanon do more than one-in-four think it is appropriate for a woman to not cover her head at all in public.
The survey treated the question of women’s dress as a visual preference. Each respondent was given a card depicting six styles of women’s headdress and asked to choose the woman most appropriately outfitted for a public place. Although no labels were included on the card, the styles ranged from a fully-hooded burqa (woman #1) and niqab (#2) to the less conservative hijab (women #4 and #5). There was also the option of a woman wearing no head covering of any type.
Overall, most respondents say woman #4, whose hair and ears are completely covered by a white hijab, is the most appropriately dressed for public. This includes 57% in Tunisia, 52% in Egypt, 46% in Turkey and 44% in Iraq. In Iraq and Egypt, woman #3, whose hair and ears are covered by a more conservative black hijab, is the second most popular choice.
In Pakistan, there is an even split (31% vs. 32%) between woman #3 and woman #2, who is wearing a niqab that exposes only her eyes, while nearly a quarter (24%) choose woman #4. In Saudi Arabia, a 63%-majority prefer woman #2, while an additional 11% say that the burqa worn by woman #1 is the most appropriate style of public dress for women.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Their predominant religion is the same, but that does not make their cultures similar.
What you post in the OP shows their cultures are NOT similar. You say "cultures in overwhelmingly Muslim countries have divergent cultures regarding dress" which also shows the cultures are NOT similar.
They have the same predominant religion but no, the cultures are NOT similar.
Same as DRC and Canada.
ETA, I had to reread again and yup. You are saying "different" is "similar". 
in the 1970s
today:
Remember, that's city-fashion. The countryside is more conservative (I think, like the two girls on the right in image #2).
Yeah, that so naturally follows from what I said.
Exactly. They asked what looks most visually pleasing.
The wind in my hair, the caress of the sun on my skin, skinny dipping on a hot day, dancing in shorts and a tank top in warm summer rain...and I don't give a rat's ass about culture, those women are seriously missing out.
I understand that's the culture they were born into, but still, to be sensually deprived like that...seems so awful.
After I posted the post you responded to, put on a slinky, skimpy nightgown, and danced in my kitchen while I fixed dinner. I think thinking about those poor women in the Middle East made me feel restricted in my clothing, and realize that I take my body freedom for granted. And, because I can.
Last edited Fri Jan 10, 2014, 02:49 AM - Edit history (2)
prefer the white head covering?
???
It doesn't make sense to me also because in Tunisia most women don't dress anything like that.
Women's clothing is much more diverse than that of men. In the towns, the vast majority of young women have adopted the European style but women of a certain age, even in urban areas, often wrap a sefseri, white veil of silk or fine wool that covers the head with a blouse and baggy pants.[71]
These figures of women wearing sefseri is engrained in the traditional culture of Tunisia as much as the blue and white houses of Sidi Bou Said:
In rural areas, women still wear brightly colored dresses, often in the Berber style and made of blue or red cotton, representing their region or their village...it is common to see women with tens, even hundreds of gold sovereigns, necklaces and other trimmings around their necks and from the sides of the headdress.
In other words, most younger urban women wear western clothes, older women tend to wear sefsari, & rural (tribal) women wear their group's clothes.
I wonder who they polled.
I think a lot of westerners would say "ugh" to the sefsari but find the tribal costume charming & ethnic. But both sefsari and the tribal ornamentation have the same roots in the Middle Eastern commonality of head covering for women, going back to Biblical times -- which is the root of similar head coverings for women in European culture up to the modern age.
As do nun's habits and wedding veils.
All branches from the same tree.
