Thank you Ramlah for your reply, I have a better understanding now about the thinking behind the veil.
Maybe I am used to other way of living, sorry for my straight forward and with all due respect, it did give me an impression that there is a possibility that guys in Islamic States, especially for those areas where putting on veil is a must, have a higher tendency to have burning lust towards women. I apologize because this is just my assumption and I don't have any data to support it, just by thinking in a logical way, if in my community there are 100 women, all are covered up with veils, I might be curious about how they look like and my nature is suppressed because I cannot look at this, cannot see that, so if suddenly one is unveiled, it will stir up quite a lot of surprises and imagination.
In other way, if in the community, veil is not a custom, everyday I see numerous women without veils, when I look at a woman, it is just plainly looking at another face, that's it, what is the big deal anyway? That becomes actually something very normal and we won't think so deeply into it, needless to say it will arouse us. Actually, in other cultures women might spend a fortune in cosmetics, hairstyle, clothing, hand bags etc etc and with all these still they may not successfully attract the attention of guys! :)
What I would think, and it would be great if I can have your opinion here as well, can this be a vicious circle that, the more a girl covers up, the more others want to see, the more others want to see, the more a girl feels threatened and afraid, so covers up even more, and on it goes.
I am not saying one should therefore expose everything, what I am saying is, just don't consider it as an issue, treat it as something very normal, that's all.
to me, its derogatory (to the women) if a guy was to look at her lustfully,...and even worse the same guy will look at a hundred other women as well...
I understand that it is uncomfortable. Maybe it is more serious at where you live, I don't know, but to me, the problem is with that guy, not you, and a society should not put this responsibility on women or let them live in fear. But again, this might be the vicious circle I mentioned earlier.
So what do you think about the Western or some other cultures, eg Japanese, Chinese etc where women are not putting on veil, what is your opinion about these societies?
Troy