I just cannot see forcing a woman to reveal a part of her body she is not comfortable revealing as

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39. Yes. But this is just as true for not eating cats. No social conditioning exists in a vacuum.

The point is, regardless of what the origin of some custom originally was (and many "religious" customs served some practical purpose at some point in history) and to what degree it is expected by one's community, at some point it becomes part of one's identity. The Muslim woman who wears a veil feels "naked" without it. I feel disgust at the thought of eating maggots. I don't eat dog meat because a dog is a pet to me. Of course the broader "society" was responsible for the conditioning, but that is beside the point. The point is, can a society claim to be enlightened that forces something on a person that makes this person feel violated?

Here is a small anecdote concerning the veil: The woman I spoke of in the OP was a girl I was in the fifth grade with. She wore the veil then already. What was funny is the way us boys responded to it. We picked up very quickly on the fact that her hair was something "special" that not everyone got to see. What it did ultimately was stimulate a lot curiosity. We got that it was "private" and that made it all the more interesting.