The Star Wars portrayal links head covering with a woman’s deference to male authority.

Evidence

Princess Leia is shown wearing a full headscarf when she records the message to Obi-Wan Kenobi. The princess, who is spunky and independent in her interactions with all the other men in the film, is deferential in this segment—not only does she speak quietly and respectfully, she covers her head with a hijab. — Sophia Rose Arjana, Muslims in the Western Imagination, 607

Categorization

• QUESTION: Is this a deliberate visual shorthand, or an unconscious artifact of costuming inherited from Orientalist film tradition? Would be worth checking interviews or McQuarrie’s notes.
• ADDENDUM: Directly extends the ‘Complaints About Immodesty Go Way Back’ theme — here the veil is weaponized in the opposite direction, as a mark of subservience rather than a site of moral panic.