Rabbanit Oriya Mevorach, 'Why Do I Love my Head-Covering?'
Covering the head every day anew creates a healthy distinction for me between home and outside, between private and public, between mine and everyone’s. This is a distinction that in our day has utterly faded, in a culture that constantly tells us: “Belong to everyone; put it on display; show off your looks; seek approval and get a ‘like;’ even at home, take a selfie and distribute it all over.” There is a difference between a woman who thinks beauty is improper and therefore obscures her beauty, and one who loves beauty, but wants to channel a part of it to realms that are exclusively hers. By the way, I would not be able to find this meaning in head-covering if I experienced it – God forbid – as something that makes me ugly.
Ruth Ben-Ammi, 'Proud in the Golan Heights'
I have always associated marriage with hair covering…It’s just what makes sense to me. I always considered it a powerful notion that the only person who should see your hair is your husband…The moment people see my hat, they know I’m off-limits, and I think that’s wonderful. I feel protected…We belong to each other, it’s like a secret that anyone can see. Something covered is always a mystery.
Rabbanit Chana Henkin, 'Mo'adon Ovedot Hashem'
When a man and woman marry, the barriers of modesty between them fall. This is an expression of the bonding of the couple together as “they became one flesh.” From now on, the members of the couple will stand together on the same side of the barrier of modesty that separates them and other people. At the same time that Halacha sanctifies the physical connection between the couple, it creates a special barrier around the couple. The same halacha that allows the woman to reveal a handbreadth[to her husband], obligates her to cover a handbreadth [with regard to everyone else]. Halacha says to the woman: things that were forbidden are now permitted. But revealing the head in public – which was permitted – becomes forbidden. Thus a balance is created and holiness is preserved in this new and sensitive situation.
Susan Rubin Weintrob, 'Why I Wear a Hat,' Hide & Seek, 94-95
When I attend Jewish community functions, people know that my hat means I am religious. Just as my hat tells them something about me, their reaction to my hat tells me something about them…I don’t wear a hat to stand out or to be different—I wear a hat to link myself to the many generations of women before me.
Rabbanit Oriya Mevorach, 'Why Do I Love my Head-Covering?'
I’m aware that my full head-covering labels me as a frum woman, even though my attitudes might surprise people who have stereotypes about religious people…I am happy for people to see me first of all as a frum woman and only afterwards to get to know me deeply and be as surprised as they wish. Declaring that “the internal is what’s essential, down with stereotypes” is only meaningful in one direction: it is cogent when said by someone who takes on external signifiers that society stereotypes, and it is not cogent when said by someone who removes external signifiers in order to evade stereotyping…