I do agree people take this free mixing thing too far in other cultures.
This would make no sense when u read the seerah, of how the sahaba acted around women, the women would walk around and men would on the street, women would walk on one side of the street men on the other, but the women were not barred off from society. The women still came up to the prophetﷺ all the time to ask questions, sometimes in front of all the men, even a women proposed to the prophet ﷺin front of him, the sahaba would talk about educational matter with the prophet ﷺs wives behind a curtain, the sahaba would say salaam to elderly women, the salaf would send letters to their female teachers and sometimes give gifts, the prophet ﷺ gave gifts to khadija RAs friends, the wives of the prophet ﷺ also would go on hajj, and the male sahabas would guard them.
The Arabs became too extreme in their freemixing rules, I do not know if it is like the khawaarij and how they became extreme in their deen bc they thought it was piety or because they thought they couldnt control themselves around woman, I do not know what it is but it is very extreme.
