This post is an attempt to find some answers as a follow-up of me having this long debate about Arabs and niqab. As I was trying to make a full picture of the origins of niqab, I'm getting a bit lost when trying to track down the location/ culture where the face-veil firstly appear.

The oldest historical proofs that mention this custom/ necessity seem to be found in the Ancient Greek, around 700-500 B.C in form of some terracotta depicting women wearing face-veils (authors Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones and Caroline Galt). Another someway proof (some say that it is a face-veil) is the brief mention of Kamal Dib in an interview with some Canadian magazine (https://ottawasun.com/2015/09/26/the-history-of-the-niqab) where he says, quote: " They found a statue of two young women from Iraq going back 5,000 years. Both of them had covers on their head ", but I cannot find any evidence of this statue on the internet.

There is a statue of Inanna, the Sumerian goddess, depicting her with a veil, but not a face veil - around 4000B.C. More than that, in the same area, the Hammurabi law (around 1700BC) and the Assyrian law (around 1100BC) also bring into discussion the veil, but again, it is a head veil.

As per Kamal Dib observation in the interview, I was also expecting that the face-veil got to be an outfit element based on the need to cover/protect from the weather or climate of the local area. Following this logical path, I was expecting that the face-veil (along with head veil) to be something that was part of the individual's headgear as he was living in harsh conditions, as Arabs do (sand storms, heat etc) and that it has its origin long before being imposed by society or religion, but again, I couldn't find anything that can back me up on this. In my defence, the Bedouins still wear such protection so it seems logical this assumption.

More than that, the Middle East and the Arabian Peninsula were long time inhabited comparing to the Europe if we think of the human expansion (two times crossed from Africa to Asia). Also, the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East people were being part of the same group of people, Semitic people, meaning that there are big chances of sharing the same culture in terms of what they wear. If this is not valid, the later cultures as Babylon Empire, Assyrian Empire, Hittite Empire were their neighbours or some Arabian North Peninsula were part of their land, meaning that these empires could have had a great impact in having the pagan Arabs adopting their Gods and customs. So, if their is some proof that face-veiling was something originating from this part of the world, then the Arabs would have adopted it as part of their culture (would they?)

In conclusion, although it sounds perfectly logical for me that the niqab or face-veiling was for the Arabs either a necessity or was some early cultural adoption of the oldest world's cultures found in their vicinity (hence, this region to be the first to have a face-veil), I have found 0 proof to support my assumptions. As all this is refuted by the lack of proof, I have no other way than to accept that the Greek culture was the first of practising the face-veil. Curios thing about Greeks is that, even Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones says: "Greece is to be regarded as a Western branch of the old civilizations of Hatti, Mitanni, Babylon, Assyria, and the Levant, sharing in their cerebral processes and material to such an extent that some modern hellenists are coming to regard Greece merely as a colony of the Near East.” ²²"

P.S For me, the today niqab is some combination of face protection (necessity) and religion/ culture pressure, leading it to its final form of today (a niqab + hijab = modern niqab)

Later Edit: I'm trying to find if what my interlocutor is saying (that Arabs adopted the face-veil from Greeks/ Romans) is true or that the face-veil was long time part of the Arabs heritage, from the time when they were polytheists or long time before this.