Taintedlove
Shaqo la'an ba kuu heysaata
I think women only cafes are fine and not extreme. Women are valid in their feelings of cautiousness. I think you misunderstood me. Somalis have a lot of cross-gender friendships. Nothing to deep as actual courting, just talk amongst friends. And I think such things are good in the somali community. South asians have a lot of strict gender segregation but that seems to have only worsened their dehumanization and treatment of women.What did older Somalis really gain from free-mixing with men? Didn't they all end up being hooyos who taught their daughters to be careful of men?
Women should be afraid of men, not all men, but a good chunk. If we consider the fact that most women have encountered perverts or know someone who has been assaulted, molested or sexually harassed by a man.
Ideally women and men interact with each other politely and when necessary, but the male gender has too many disordered beings for that to be realistic. Gender segregations/mahrem is to protect women from these kind of beings. Even when they are 'courting' girls, I think they need to be supervised, investigated and grilled by their own gender who can read through their bullshit.
Women are harmed more by men than they are harmed by wild animals, but we've been taught to think it's extreme to be careful of men, when our own creator, Allah SWT, has guidelines for how to interact with them.