George Takai NAILS it. "Who Died?"

[angrychair]

133. I am not refusing to concede anything

Your "the Catholic Church does not insist on a literal interpretation of the Bible" statement deserves it own reply. Though an atheist, I graduated from a Catholic university and I am very aware of the catechisms of the Catholic Church.

That being said, on to your other point. There is a big difference between religious dogma and legal obligation.

Our entire conversation has been about religious dogma, not about a legal obligation to dress a certain manner.

Many western nations did have a religiously-inspired, legally mandated dress codes for women, that often included head coverings of some kind, but it has fallen away as time has gone on but you can see many aspects of it that persist in western culture and it's laws to this day (laws requiring women to wear shirts but not men as an example).

Now many Middle Eastern and Asian nations, specifically those that are predominantly Islamic and have theocracies or a dominating Islamic group that has significant influence of their government, and culture, do create laws that create a legal obligation for women to dress a certain way.

So yes, there is a religiously-inspired legal obligation in some nations for women to dress in a brutal and humiliating manner that does not exist in western nations. No one would argue that point.

That being said, in certain archdioceses or Amish or Mennonite communities or Eastern Orthodox communities, while there is no legal obligation, there is a cultural one, one engrained in them from childhood, that women dress a certain way. While they are legally free to dress differently, doing so would put them outside their community's cultural norms and likely cause them to be shut out and shamed for it, even kicked out of their communities. The end result is little different.
In the end it is still men using religion to dominate and control women in the name of their god(s). One of many reasons I find religion abhorrent.
(Just for the record I am a man)