The Cons of a single working female life…

I have a young single female friend who used to work with me in Riyadh, her family is in Jeddah, a mother and two sisters all are pursuing their career training, her father is dead for some years now and she has been supporting her family ever since, she goes in quick visits to Jeddah and lives in the hospital housing complex…Few months ago, a married man and a father of a young son who has a job in the military saw her at the hospital, he started harassing her by phones and frequent visits to her work place and finally to her own apartment -despite the security, possibly due to his military status – to push her to accept his proposal of marriage, , she hesitated to ask for help at work in an attempt to protect her reputation, and finally he sent her a letter imposing a personality of a royal family member, in fact, when she tried calling the police they asked for evidence for abuse, and when she got the letter she filed a report that went through because of the man’s crime of imposing a royal character in the letter instead of the harassment, but she was glad anyways…She said he didn’t call her ever since the police contacted him and someone at the police office promised her to spare her the involvement at the court later because she doesn’t have a male guardian…I feel for single females living alone in a man-designed world…My mother suggested marriage as a solution, my older sister suggested a complete face veil to point out the lady’s good intentions and hide her identity… and I was wondering, of all the efforts that a woman has to go through here to avoid harassment, she couldn’t succeed in voicing out her rejection many times to that man, her opinion simply didn’t matter…is it safe to say that women can work with men when no clear understanding of their rights is granted? Are we in need of a national campaign to raise awareness of women rights esp. at work and strict laws to stop abuses? Is fear of reputation exceeds fear of own safety? Are we a harsh and judgmental society after all? and how can we turn a deeply-rooted culture that linked virtuous, humble, God-fearing women to segregation, guardianship and complete face and body covering into a woman-friendly culture…