What to do, what to do?

[GeorgeTH]

Originally Posted by swedguy

"The community that you will be working with in Valaichenai are predominantly Muslim"
"No talking or any contact with women, unless they are immediate family"
.....and things like that.
[...]
Plus I don't share Muslim's view on women and I don't want to sound judgemental but they lack basic view on human rights.

Gosh, what picture of a muslim society do they try to paint?

From all my experience (I've been to Marocco, Egypt, Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Afganistan, Indonesia, Malaysia - all muslim countries!) it's hardly anywhere as conservative anymore as this sounds! O.k., there are differences to our western behaviour, rules, like they try to portrait, still apply to a degree with elderly women, specially once they are married (depending on their husband), but "no talking or any contact to women" - bloody bullshit! As long as it is in public, and there's no inappropriate behaviour envolved (like intimate touching or hugging), you can talk with a woman. Just don't go with her any place out of public view (your/her room, secluded beach, etc.).
I had a nice girl/woman in Sumatra openly flirt with me, and exactly these 'rules' made me step back and be a lot more reserved than I would be otherwise. She had a good sense of humour and was well educated and informed (she had a university degree) - and exactly that's the point: simply through television and the unfortunate dominance of Hollywood productions the muslim view gets softened...
Now that I live in Australia and have a few friends with Indonesian wifes I know better: I could have been a lot more open to the situation, specially since the interest was actually mutual.