Thoughts on hijab and how people talk about it, salam

Assalamu alaikum - just some personal thoughts I’ve been chewing on lately. I wear hijab, alhamdulillah, and it’s been about three years now. But I’ve been reflecting on the idea of enforced hijab and very strict rules about modesty and where those rules come from. A lot of the expectations around outward appearance made sense in the social and cultural context 1400 years ago - pre-Islamic Arabia was a dangerous place for women, and the rules then addressed real harms. But today hijab doesn’t always act as the kind of “protection” people claim it does, and hijabis can still be targets of harassment and even physical violence. What really gets to me is when Muslim men (and sometimes women) push the idea that hijab exists mainly so men won’t harm women. That framing is harmful because it suggests women who don’t cover somehow don’t deserve respect, safety, or dignity. I’m tired of the misogyny dressed up as religious empowerment - comments that reduce women to whether they’re “wrapped” or “unwrapped,” or that say women with hijab are somehow morally superior and others are immoral, are really painful to see. Even more upsetting is when Muslim women police other women: gossip, insults, branding sisters who don’t wear hijab as promiscuous or lacking in faith, or treating women from cultures without a headscarf as lesser. That backbiting and moral superiority is heartbreaking and wrong. Islam teaches us to avoid slander and to treat each other with dignity. I also wonder about context: Allah didn’t impose identical outward rules on Jewish or Christian women at their times of revelation, yet they had modest expectations within their own traditions. That makes me think about how interpretations and cultural attitudes have shaped what hijab means for us today, sometimes in ways that promote superiority instead of humility. This is mainly a rant and a lot of questions. I’m not declaring anything final - I’m just trying to sort through how hijab is meant to function in women’s lives versus how some people (especially men) have interpreted it for women. Anyone else wrestled with similar thoughts?