How Healthy Is The Extreme Gender-Based Segregation In Saudi Arabia?

I came across this article in the NYT and immediately thought: this can't be healthy.

Now before I get my head ripped off by those who take me/us as attention-seeking, faux non-conformist, Western-pleasing Uncle Toms, let me state at the outset what I am not arguing:

1. That any nation adopt or import cultural practices and discourse that are alien to it.
2. That hegemonic Western notions of superiority vis-a-vis gender relations be given credence beyond certain circumscribed empirical universes.
3. That there inheres in gender-based segregation significant normative content. Put another way, that segregation is "good" or "bad".

No, I'm simply asking: is this healthy? I mean, just read some of these passages:

The separation between the sexes in Saudi Arabia is so extreme that it is difficult to overstate. Saudi women may not drive, and they must wear black abayas and head coverings in public at all times. They are spirited around the city in cars with tinted windows, attend girls-only schools and university departments, and eat in special “family” sections of cafes and restaurants, which are carefully partitioned from the sections used by single male diners.

Special women-only gyms, women-only boutiques and travel agencies, even a women-only shopping mall, have been established in Riyadh in recent years to serve women who did not previously have access to such places unless they were chaperoned by a male relative.

And

According to about 30 Saudi girls and women between ages 15 and 25, all interviewed during December, January and February, it is becoming more and more socially acceptable for young engaged women to speak to their fiancés on the phone, though more conservative families still forbid all contact between engaged couples.

And

“If your family found out you were talking to a man online, that’s not quite as bad as talking to him on the phone,” Ms. Tukhaifi explained. “With the phone, everyone can agree that is forbidden, because Islam forbids a stranger to hear your voice. Online he only sees your writing, so that’s slightly more open to interpretation.

“One test is that if you’re ashamed to tell your family something, then you know for sure it’s wrong,” Ms. Tukhaifi continued. “For a while I had Facebook friends who were boys — I didn’t e-mail with them or anything, but they asked me to “friend” them and so I did. But then I thought about my family and I took them off the list.”

And

“I always go to him [her brother] when I have problems,” said Shaden who, like many of the young Saudi women interviewed for this article, spoke on the condition that her last name be omitted. “And he’s not too strict — he still listens to music sometimes. I asked him once, ‘You do everything right and yet you’re listening to music?’ He said, ‘I know music is haram, and inshallah, with time I will be able to stop listening to music too.’ ” Haram means forbidden, and inshallah means “God willing.”

She added, “I told him, ‘I want a husband like you.’ ”

Does walling one entire set of people from another entire set of people ever produce good outcomes? Just to reiterate the point - they're simply not allowed in each other's company. In many ways, this segregation is more extreme than Apartheid South Africa, where at least black and white people would see each other.

Anyway, reading all this just reminded me of this story, back from a few years ago, when the Religious Police didn't let girls escape from a burning building because they weren't dressed according to "Islamic principles".

The point I'm trying to raise is that irrespective of whatever cultural path dependence creates and reinforces these norms, it can't be healthy for men and women to be so completely cut off from each other. I'm not talking about changing these norms per se - indeed, it's quite striking how little we hear about dissatisfaction with these norms - but am merely highlighting their practical effects.