Is the veil liberating?

When I read Persepolis, the idea that some women might want to be veiled didn't even cross my mind. I'm glad someone in class brought up the idea of what women wear in different cultures being liberating. I found some interesting quotes when I looked up why Muslim women wear the veil and if they like to or not.

"Arab-American Diba Rab says she chooses to wear a veil because it acts as an equalizer. 'I want people to see who I am — for who I am — and not for how I look and not for my physical features, but rather my intellectual capabilities," she said.'" http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=126666&page=1

"I really liked the purpose behind the hijab -- a woman covering herself so that a man should know her for her mind, not her body." http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/08/12/generation.islam.hijab/

On one hand, covering the physical body so that the mind is most important does sound liberating. But it shows that there is a problem where the physical body of women is the first thing to be looked at, and her mind may be ignored. Women should not have to cover their bodies in order to feel liberated, but that doesn't mean that being covered cannot be liberating. (This is similar to the idea that people should not be put into gender boxes, but that doesn't mean that we can't be in a gender box we like.) I don't think that they should be required by law to adhere to extremely strict guidelines, but I don't know how strict the regulation of clothing actually is. I only got one perspective from Persepolis.