Is not wearing hijab a barrier to being a gracious guest in a Muslim country?

In today's Washington Post article on what to think about Speaker Nancy Pelosi donning the hijab or headscarf on her recent Middle East tour, style pundit Robin Givhan remarks:

There are few images more discomforting than public figures thrust into foreign cultures and required to wear the host's traditional attire. Almost without exception the visitors tend to look smaller and more vulnerable. They evoke the uneasiness of children who have been dressed by a parent, teacher, minister or other authority figure. Wearing something unfamiliar or inappropriate in a public forum has a way of deflating even the most pompous figures. Their body language communicates their uneasiness. Our eyes register the sight as jarring.

As daughter-in-law in a family where I am expected to wear non-Western clothing, I had to laugh at this image. Givhan captured precisely the way I must have looked when I was first adjusting to having to wear Indian clothes, clothes that I knew nothing about.

Givhan also gives good advice on how to avoid this situation and yet comply with the demands of being a gracious guest (or good in-law). Give some thought to the new style of clothes you are expected to wear and apply your usual standards of style.

What's the word for fashion victim in Punjabi? Anyway, that's what describes the new me who is now more than happy to wear Indian clothes - as long as they are gorgeous that is.