Persepolis: Veil talk

Often in Western feminist-as-tourist discussions of women's lives in the Middle East, certain assumptions are made about women who wear veils during their daily lives. Many Westerners inaccurately assume that the veil is an inherent symbol of women's oppression, that women who cover themselves are forced to do so for modesty, religious purposes, male possession, etc. While these assumptions are untrue and incomplete pictures of living with a veil, Persepolis prompts me to question where these assumptions come from. Satrapi tells the story of the changes that occur under the Islamic regime in Iran, including that of mandatory veil-wearing. The way that she describes having to wear her veil is definitely a part of the oppressive religious rule, so I wonder if/how much histories like that in Iran have influenced the prejudices surrouding the veil in Western eyes today. Keeping in mind that many women in the world freely choose to wear a veil, how many women are actually forced to do so? And what effect, if any, does this have on their sense of womanhood? (what does that even mean? also we could talk about nego feminism with Satrapi's own bending of the rules of visual self-expression)