Re: Haram … ?
It’s not Arab tradition it’s Islam, segregation is from the Sunnah (the Qur’aan itself tells us to follow the Sunnah so you can’t claim to follow only the Qur’aan). Except in extreme necessity women only interacted with men from behind the veil.
I know nowadays there are all these sects starting here and there saying veil is not from Islam, others even go further and say the head scarf or beard or lowering the gaze (for men) is not Islamic, it’s all down to what suits their fancy. Some ignorant suit-tie disco Imams even claim to be Sunni yet they’ll take the parts of the Sunnah out of context, e.g. pick and choose the abrogated bits prior to the veil being sanctioned by God, these types of Mullahs don’t seem to realise that Islam and Shari’ah was revealed in stages and you have to have a knowledge of the Qur’aan and Sunnah and know everything in context before you start passing verdicts.
Segregation is not only Arab culture, lots of Islamic societies practice it, to women of dignity, and whose men have some honour it’s only natural, but I suppose it’s different for Punjabis, Mohajirs and Indian Muslims such as Gujaratis and stuff (even the religious clerics), their families have never really practiced some aspects of Islam ever since they became Muslim so these customs are as alien to them as they would be to a Hindu.
Islam is realistic, come on how many blokes do you know who’ll do anything like that to another male? Not many, me personally I’d rather put my wotsit through one of those keema (mince) making machine than up a siht hole yukh. There will be some men who are gay and find boys attractive but they’re a small minority, men and women mixing is more of Fitnah (temptation) than looking at boys.