Allah says that woman are to be protected and loved, and cared for. The Quran says that women believers are to be veiled: O Prophet! Tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to draw their cloaks (veils) all over their bodies (i.e. Screen themselves completely except the eyes or one eye to see the way). That will be better, that they should be known (as free respectable women) so as not to be annoyed. And Allah is Ever Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful. S. 33:59 Hilali-Khan The Sunni exegetes al-Jalalayn say: O Prophet! Tell your wives and daughters and the women of the believers to draw their cloaks closely over themselves (jalbaab is the plural of jilbab, which is a wrap that covers a woman totally) - in other words, let them pull part of it [also] over their faces, leaving one eye [visible], when they need to leave [the house] for something. That makes it likelier that they will be known, to be free women, and not be molested, by being approached. In contrast, slavegirls did not use to cover their faces and so the disbelievers used to pester them. And God is Forgiving, of any occasion in the past when they may have neglected to cover themselves, Merciful, to them in His veiling them. (Tafsir al-Jalalayn;)
