Short answer
Yes. Paul, a Christian missionary of the first century, told Christian women to cover their heads when they pray. He said a woman who prays with her head uncovered dishonours her head. The Catholic Church's law required women to cover their heads in church until the 1983 code dropped the rule. Many nuns still wear a veil. Christian art almost always shows Mary, the mother of Jesus, with her head covered. The Qur'an asks believing women to draw their head coverings over their chests, and to wear an outer garment in public. So the Muslim woman who covers keeps the Bible's rule more faithfully than most churches do today. Few people call a nun's veil oppression, and a Muslim woman's scarf should not be either.
Full explanation
What Paul commands
In 1 Corinthians 11 Paul says that a woman who prays or prophesies (speaks for God (﷾)) with her head uncovered dishonours her head. If she will not be covered, he says, let her hair be cut off. Since that is a shame, he says, let her be covered. He asks the church to judge whether it is fitting for a woman to pray to God (﷾) uncovered. He grounds the rule in creation and "because of the angels", not in local fashion.
“But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.”
“But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven. For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered.”
“For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man. For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels.”
“Judge in yourselves: is it comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered?”
The churches kept the rule for centuries
Early Christian writers read Paul as meaning a real veil. Tertullian, a Christian writer in Carthage early in the third century, argued that even unmarried girls must be veiled in church. The Catholic Church wrote the rule into its law. The 1917 Code of Canon Law (the Church's book of laws) required women to cover their heads in church. The 1983 Code replaced it and did not repeat the rule. Catholic nuns have covered their heads for hundreds of years, and few people call their veil a sign of oppression.
Tertullian, writing early in the third century, argues from 1 Corinthians 11 that not only married women but unmarried girls too must be veiled in church, and that the veil is a rule of truth, not a local custom.
Canon 1262, section 2, of the Catholic Church's 1917 Code of Canon Law directs that in church men attend with heads uncovered and women with heads covered and modestly dressed, above all when they come to receive communion. The 1983 Code, which replaced the 1917 Code entirely, does not repeat the rule.
Mary and Rebekah
In icons (holy paintings), cathedral windows and paintings alike, the mother of Jesus is shown with her hair covered. When Rebekah first saw Isaac, the man she was to marry, she took a veil and covered herself. Jewish law, as the Mishnah later wrote it down (about 200 CE), listed several breaches of Jewish custom. One was a married woman going out with her head uncovered. So the veil in the icons matches the custom of Jewish married women of that age. The veil a Muslim woman is mocked for in a Western city is the veil Mary wears. It is in the paintings and statues of that city's churches.
“For she had said unto the servant, What man is this that walketh in the field to meet us? And the servant had said, It is my master: therefore she took a vail, and covered herself.”
The Mishnah (compiled c. 200 CE) counts a wife going out with her head uncovered among the breaches of Jewish custom for which she may be divorced without her marriage settlement.
“But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven. For if the woman be not covered, let her also be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered.”
| Source | What it says |
|---|---|
| Rebekah, Genesis 24 | She took a veil and covered herself when she met Isaac |
| Paul, 1 Corinthians 11 | A woman who prays with her head uncovered dishonours her head |
| The Mishnah, about 200 | A married woman going out with her head uncovered breached Jewish custom |
| Tertullian, early 200s | Even unmarried girls must be veiled in church |
| Catholic law, 1917 to 1983 | Women cover their heads in church |
| The Qur'an | Draw the head covering over the chest, and wear an outer garment in public |
What the Qur'an asks of women
The Qur'an tells believing women to draw their khumur (head coverings) over their chests, and not to show their beauty except to close family. It tells the Prophet (ﷺ) to ask the women of the believers to put on an outer garment when they go out. This is so that they are known and not harmed. The New Testament also asks women to dress "in modest apparel". Muslim scholars agree that a woman covers her hair before men outside her close family.
“And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what (must ordinarily) appear thereof; that they should draw their veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbands, their fathers, their husband's fathers, their sons, their husbands' sons, their brothers or their brothers' sons, or their sisters' sons, or their women, or the slaves whom their right hands possess, or male servants free of physical needs, or small children who have no sense of the shame of sex; and that they should not strike their feet in order to draw attention to their hidden ornaments. And O ye Believers! turn ye all together towards Allah, that ye may attain Bliss.”
“O Prophet! Tell thy wives and daughters, and the believing women, that they should cast their outer garments over their persons (when abroad): that is most convenient, that they should be known (as such) and not molested. And Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.”
“In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works.”
Verse by verse
1 Corinthians 11:15 — First Epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 11, verse 15
“But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering.”
Cited for
A woman's long hair is her covering. Paul is not asking for a veil, only for long hair.
The response
Paul says that if a woman is not covered, she should also be shorn. If her hair were the covering, an uncovered woman would be one with no hair. Then the command to cut her hair would make no sense. The covering is something put over the hair. That is how the Church read it for most of its history, from Tertullian to the 1917 Code of Canon Law.
Where it lands — Verse 15 praises long hair; it does not cancel the covering commanded in verses 5 and 6.
1 Corinthians 11:16 — First Epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 11, verse 16
“But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God.”
Cited for
Paul ends by saying "we have no such custom". The head covering was a local custom of Corinth and does not bind Christians today.
The response
Paul does not give Corinth's custom as his reason. He argues from creation and "because of the angels". Many readers, ancient and modern, take "no such custom" to refer to the contentious man (the one who loves to argue) in the same verse. On that reading, neither Paul nor the churches of God (﷾) have any other practice. The churches went on veiling women for most of the nineteen centuries after Paul wrote.
Where it lands — Paul's reasons do not come from Corinth's customs, and the churches kept the rule for centuries. Muslim women keep it still.
Perspectives
Most churches today
Most Protestant churches, and in practice most Catholic parishes, no longer ask women to cover their heads. Many read Paul's words as a custom of first-century Corinth. Others read verse 15 as saying that a woman's long hair is itself her covering.
Paul says a woman's long hair is given to her for a covering. Some Christians read this as meaning no other covering is needed.
Rebuttal
Paul does praise long hair as a glory to a woman. But earlier in the same chapter he says an uncovered woman should be shorn. So her hair cannot be the covering he means. The Church read it as a real veil, from Tertullian to the 1917 Code of Canon Law.
The Islamic perspective
The head covering is a rule the Bible and the Qur'an share. God (﷾) commands it in the Qur'an, and Paul commands it in the Bible. The Muslim woman who wears it keeps Paul's rule. She dresses as Mary is almost always shown. She wears it as an act of worship and a wish to please God (﷾), not because a man forces her.
Paul commands a woman to cover her head when she prays, and says an uncovered head dishonours her.
Paul does not base the rule on a custom of Corinth: he argues from Genesis and "because of the angels".
The Catholic Church required women to cover their heads in church in its 1917 Code of Canon Law. It dropped the rule only with the new Code of 1983.
Tertullian, early in the third century, read Paul as requiring a real veil in church, even for unmarried girls.
The Qur'an commands believing women to draw their head coverings over their chests. It tells them to wear an outer garment in public.