2. • Please also see video : ‘Women Confined to
Houses‘ for better understanding.
• Some think that in islam unmarried men and
women are completely restricted and cannot
be alone together under any circumstances.
• The Quran gives an example in which an
engaged couple may meet in secret if they
have something righteous to discuss:

3. • And there is no sin upon you if you
openly propose marriage to these
women, or you keep it between
yourselves. God knows that you will be
thinking of them, but do not meet them
secretly, unless you have something
righteous to discuss... [2:235]

4. • The Quran also cites an example in which if an
unrelated male believer is alone inside the prophet's
house and needed to ask his wives for something, they
should do so from behind a barrier:
• ...If you ask his wives for something, ask them from
behind a barrier*... [33:53]
*Note, the male is requested to ask from behind a
"barrier/hijab", not the female. The term "hijab"
denotes anything that intervenes between two things
or prevents something, e.g. screen, partition, curtain,
obstacle.

5. • It is later clarified in 33:55 that 33:53 is about unrelated
male believers only:
• There is no sin upon them before their fathers, or their
sons, or their brothers, or the sons of their brothers, or
the sons of their sisters, or their women, or those who
are committed to them by oath (e.g. servants or
dependents in the household). And be aware of God, for
God is witness over all things. [33:55]
• Similarly, Abraham and his wife were in the presence of
male guests in their home, freely participating in
conversation, laughing [11:69-76].

6. • There is also a clear example in The Quran of Moses speaking to
two unmarried women in public, one of whom he married later:
• And when he came to the water of Madyan, he found on it a
group of men watering, and he found besides them two women
keeping back (their flocks). He said: What is the matter with
you? They said: We cannot water until the shepherds take away
(their sheep) from the water, and our father is a very old man. So
he watered (their sheep) for them, then went back to the shade
and said: My Sustainer! surely I stand in need of whatever good
Thou may send down to me. Then one of the two women came to
him walking bashfully. She said: My father invites you that he
may give you the reward of your having watered for us... [28:23-
25]