Many interpretations of the head-coverings in 1 Corinthians 11 have privileged the discussion of female asceticism in Tertullian and Jerome over the partially disrobed virgins in The Shepherd of Hermas and Acts of John. Drawing upon crosscultural anthropological comparison, Gail Corrington, Dale Martin, and others have argued that veils customarily protect and patronize women. Certainly, non-Christian foundational religious texts like the Qur'an contain examples of protective veils. The hijab (33:53) and jilbab (33:59-60) are described as a result of Zaynab bint Jahsh’s marriage to Mohammed after he gazed upon her partially disrobed. The practice thrived amid a culture of Byzantine beauty contests and Sasanian captive beauty files. Recently, speaking about the contemporary Egyptian Muslim female piety movement, Saba Mahmood has argued that women can find agency in performing the practice of veiling. Accordingly, I propose to read 1 Cor. 11 with veiled "ordinary" readers in U.S. diaspora communities, situations similar to that of Corinth where Greeks in a Roman colony envisioned Israel: American Muslims wearing the hijab and American Roman Catholic nuns wearing the habit. We will consider established interpretations (e.g., Antoinette Wire, Dale Martin, Troy Martin), my own thesis that the veils were egalitarian as Roman and Jewish male practice prescribed veiled heads, and the community’s own experience. As a Roman Catholic, I am not just a scholar but also a reader with an "ordinary" investment in the hermeneutical future of one of the religious groups. In order to allow for American regional differences and individual idiosyncracies, my readings will synthesize the experience of hijab wearers and nuns in Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Chicago. For both groups of ordinary readers, consideration will be given for the relational aspect of authority in their religious communities. Accordingly, imams and Catholic clergy in supervisory roles will be consulted as non-biblical scholars who wield epistemic authority in their communities.