- Wimple
The wimple is a
garment ofmediaeval Europe worn bywomen . It is a cloth which usually covers the head and is worn around theneck andchin . At many stages of medieval culture it was unseemly for a married woman to show her hair. A wimple might be elaborately starched, and creased and folded in prescribed ways, even supported on wire or wicker framing (cornette ). Italian women abandoned their headcloths in the 15th century, or replaced them with transparent gauze, and showed their elaborate braids. Both elaborate laundry and elaborate braiding demonstrated status, in that such grooming was being performed by others.Geoffrey Chaucer in hisCanterbury Tales has theWife of Bath and also thePrioress depicted wearing them. Today the wimple is worn by somenun s who still don the traditional habit. The women who wore wimples were actually observing the following passage in 1 Corinthians 11:5 in theNew Testament : "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." [http://www.centurionministry.org/body/head-covering.asp Woman, Prayer & Head Covering] TheKing James Version explicitly lists "wimples" in Isaiah 3:22 as one of a list of female fineries, although the Hebrew term is rendered as shawl or cloak in other versions.For pictures of the wimple, see:
* [http://www.wga.hu/art/d/david/1/adoratio.jpgGerard David, Adoration of the Magi] - with Mary wearing a wimple
* [http://www.wga.hu/art/d/durer/1/03/2lament2.jpgAlbrecht Dürer, Lamentation of Christ (detail)] - women with wimplesee also
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Babushka
*Hijab References
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