Shopping, it seems that your friend might have been infected with Talibanitis. Please get her some help before she buys a burka.
And if the friend does? That is after all the logical conclusion of Joseph’s points (assuming, as is logical, that staring at a tent is not staring at the Isha, and the Isha is “inside” when the Isha is within the Isha’s portable tent, just like staring at an apartment building which an Isha is within).
That being said, Noshim have an almost 5800 year old minhag to take non-halachic chumros upon themselves, starting from Adam’s Bashert not wanting to touch the Eitz HaDaas.
P.S. Not talking on your phone in the street is a wonderful thing for men and Noshim, and is a Kiym of “U’shmartem es Nafshosaychem”. Bezras Hashem your friend will be Mekayem “Mitoch Shelo Lishma Ba’ah Lidei Lishma”.
Finally, is your friend in Shidduchim? That usually explains these types of signals.