Peace bro Wakas, all,
The call to connection on the day of gathering in 62:9 starts with "yaa ayyuhallazeena aamanoo", which obviously includes both believing men and women, so women can congregate with men for salaat.
Similarly, 2:153 and 2:277 address both believing men and women.
As for the other points that have been brought up regarding "khimaar", they were covered in a recent heated discussion involving me at the following thread:
http://free-minds.org/forum/index.php?topic=14453.0My participation started with reply #121 on page 9.
Two points:
1. "Khimaar" also covers the lower face in addition to head according to Lane's, when used in the sense of a head cover. Thus it would be a "head and lower face cover", and not just "head cover".
The full definition of "khimaar" according to Lane's Lexicon pertaining to "head cover":
Khimaar [
A woman's muffler, or veil with which she covers her head and the lower part of her face, leaving exposed only the eyes and part or whole of the nose, such is the "khimaar" worn in the present day: a kind of veil which in Turkish is called Yashmaq]
2. Khumur is the plural of "khimaar" and "khimirr", both of which also mean
"ANY COVERING of a thing" or
"ANYTHING by which a thing is veiled, or covered" according to Lane's Lexicon (Book 1, page 809, also see under the root Kh-M-R in Project Root List, LL Volume 2, page 445)