I once spent a week in a region of southern Sudan where almost none of the women covered their breasts, and then just two weeks later I flew to Iran, where women are required by law to cover their hair with hijabs as a sign of modesty.
It was a stark reminder of how cultures are different, laws vary and rules about women's behavior are shockingly arbitrary. I began to wonder why we in the West think our own modesty standards are any more appropriate than anyone else's.
For a while after that trip, I felt that hijab rules like the ones I'd seen enforced in Iran were no more outrageous or illogical than our own cover-up rules on main streets and public beaches.
