Wearing a veil in a Muslim country — respect for culture, or enabling?

So if you haven’t already heard, the Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey has been getting a lot of crap for wearing a head scarf while meeting with the President of Iran.  Behold the link:

Swiss minister sparks veil outcry (BBC NEWS)

I say it’s fine, and even admirable, to ‘do as the Romans do’ when you’re visiting a nation as a diplomat, and I assume she would give the same respect to any Muslim leader, but I wouldn’t wear it.  First of all, I don’t see the point of going through the motions of somebody else’s religion that you know nothing about just to make them more comfortable (I didn’t shave my head when I visited a Buddhist monastery, for instance, and neither did any of the other visitors, Chinese or foreign).  Secondly, the fact that religion is enforced and not practiced freely in Iran is a human rights problem and one that mainly affects women, and as a woman, the Swiss minister should be sensitive to that fact.  I don’t understand why anyone would want to enforce expressions of religious devotion anyway.  If a person is free to practice or not practice a faith, when they do it, and go all out and wear the veil, then it means so much more, and says so much more about the person’s level of devotion.  I have read so many accounts from women in Iran who wish that we in the Western world cared more about them and their plight.  I just wonder what we can do about it.  I guess we can start by not wearing veils when we visit.