Dress Codes and Perception

Yesterday I saw a couple of nuns walking across the campus in full habits. This isn't particularly remarkable given that it's a Catholic university, but it got me thinking (which might be fraught with peril). Whenever I've heard discussions of dress codes and the supposed "tyranny" of certain styles of dress that privilege modesty, it's usually been in the context of oppression. I asked myself if it was a sign of oppression that Catholic nuns go about in habits that obscure all but their faces.