❝In the west, where there is freedom and pressure to remove the Hijāb, more women have in fact chosen to embrace it and wear it. Far from being oppressed, veiled women are part of the mainstream society in almost all democratic nations. No doubt, countries with Muslim leaders today operate an oppressive regime, and the primary victims in such countries are women. Hijāb was not mandated to remove oppression, or to instil it. It was mandated to protect women and dignify their status.❞

[Imām Afroz Ali, Unveiling Hijab – An Explanation of the Head Veil of the Muslim Woman]

As for those who say “…nowhere in the Quran or Hadith is there a single, unequivocal passage that imposes the veil on Muslim women.”

Here’s a response to that:
http://seekersguidance.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/unveiling-hijab-ebook.pdf