Mutilation and cloth are two different things and comparing the two would be like comparing Nazi gas chambers to American prisons. Yes the two are similar, but the consequences and intentions behind each are opposite. Moreover, comparing prisons to gas chambers makes the latter as serious as the former even if the two institutions in question do not carry the same level of ethical deviance. Likewise, comparing mutilation to veiling demonizes veiling for some, but mitigates the negative outlook on mutilation for others. When discussing the issue of veiling, one must be careful not to confuse the historical concept of veiling with the contemporary one.
Many people assume that the veil had always been imposed on Muslim women.
Ironically, it is this historical choice to veil that has been codified as law in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Indeed, veiling then may take on modern symbolism-but it is not and never was as major of an issue as it became in the 19th and 20th centuries.