Thank you.

But why only women? Are men not Kings too? Can cousins shake hands?

@Wakanyugi, this is not for women only. Just like you consider your woman as QUEEN, you automatically are the KING. QUEEN for KING, PRINCESS for PRINCE. An analogy.

It is because you had asked me about the women... It is vice versa for men too... the men are not allowed to shake the hands of the opposite gender who are not related to e.g. mother, sister, wife, daughter, aunt, grandmother, granddaughters, nieces...

See detailed response below...

Maybe that rule was brought about after Muhammad stole his son's wife

He must have started with a handshake

No @lonest. It didn't start after Muhammad p.b.u.h... I'm sure you'll recognize the below verse:

"Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says. If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church. (1 Corinthians 14:34-35)

@quicksand, the above was meant for @lonest. I was just trying to remove some ignorance from some people.

Let me give him some more infor from Judaism:

Background
There are a variety of reasons in Judaism that are used to justify gender separation to varying degrees.

In Pirkei Avot 1:5, Yosi ben Yochanan says that a man who spends too much time talking to women, even his wife, neglects the study of Torah and will inherit gehinnom.

Chapter 152 of Kitzur Shulchan Aruch details a series of laws forbidding interaction between persons of the opposite sex who are not married or closely related. Some of the prohibitions include physical contact, isolation with members of the opposite sex, staring at women or any of there body parts or attire, or conversation for pleasure.

You can also look at the status of women in earlier civilizations

I'm sending you school fees, Imam

@tycho, just know that believe in God (in Arabic Allah) is true.

This tendency of a doubt is given in the Quran many instances. And the treatment of that is you need to look at the creation of Allah, and ponder over this creation, and you see the perfection and all of these will become a reason for you to accept the fact that there must be someone behind. This is the idea of INTELLIGENT designer. You will be able to see that there is someone behind all of these. So look at the existence around yo, and think about this existence, ponder about how they couldn't have come into existence if there was no one behind them... it can't be a chance!

You see, the natural tendency to obey laws of nature is printed on the human even from mother's womb. So when a child is born, it has with it a natural obedience to laws of nature (nature has been designed by a designer, we call God, Allah). This natural belief is called in Islam the "fitrah".

I gave a response on this here...

Intelligent Design it really is! @Tycho I am surprised he slipped this fallacy past you…
See he is telling you that those things that work well in nature are here courtesy of ID. Now this is how wonderful is ID is: If you assume the world is older than the 6000 years creationists want you to believe, then even if you go with 20,000 year, we know the most species that ever existed on our planet earth are extinct now; for thousands of years, humans suffered/died from simple illnesses; life expectancy was barely 30 years; barbaric wars were the norm; and yet through all these years, the ID creator watched with indifference. Then about 2000 years ago in bronze age Palestine or 1400 years ago in the same region the ID creator decided it was time to intervene by offering as a sacrifice a Galilean carpenter or sharing his revelation with illiterate merchant. Such intelligent design it was…Now with benefit of hindsight, ID proponents can lay claim to discoveries made in medicine, cosmology and evolution - what a way to shift goal posts!

@Apricot don't you know @tycho believes in God? Everything obeys the laws of nature... defined by the designer or creator...

AS I said in earlier post, if a child were left alone, it would grow up aware of Almighty God in His Unity, but all children are affected by the pressures of their environment.

The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), reported that God the Exalted said: "I created My servants in the right religion, but the devils made them go astray."

The Messenger of God (pbuh) also said: "Each child is born in a state of fitrah, but his parents make him a Jew or a Christian."

For me @AlphDoti, you quit reasoning a long time ago. Now you're restricted to memory verses and reharshing old myths and doctrine. Your God and mine are radically different...