These functions are for generic MIME headers and bodies, so are
applicable to CGI, HTTP, Email, and any other protocols based on MIME.
So I think having them in email.header makes about as much sense as
having them in cgi.

Isn't mimetools a better package for this?

Also I think there's an exodus of functions from cgi -- there's talk
about parse_qs/parse_qsl being moved to urllib (I thought that was
almost finalised). Traditionally the cgi module has had way too much
stuff in it which only superficially applies to cgi.

I'm also thinking of cgi.escape, which I'd rather see in htmllib than
cgi (except that htmllib is described as "A parser for HTML documents").

But I'm worried that these functions are too ingrained in people's
memories (I type "cgi.escape" several times a day and I'd get confused
if it moved). So perhaps these moves are too late.

I imagine if they were moved (at least for a few versions) the old ones
would still work, with a deprecation warning?