Husbands are not allowed to physically abuse their wife! You probably read something translated poorly from Arabic scripture also without any supporting commentary on the context in which the scripture was revealed (likely done intentionally to be biased against Islam), to believe what you're allowed to "beat" wives.
Also, cars did not exist when Islam was revealed, some countries not allowing women to drive is solely based on that country's clerics' interpretation of Islamic rules, often driven by their culture.
I didn't check out the wikipedia link that Sherief posted but I imagine it's pretty unbiased, and you will probably find your answers in there.
4.1 17. They invoke in His stead only females; they pray to none else than Satan, a rebel.
53.21-22. Are yours the males and His the females? That indeed were an unfair division!
53.27. Lo! it is those who disbelieve in the Hereafter who name the angels with the names of females.
Other verses from the Koran also seem of a misogynist tendency.
2.228. Women who are divorced shall wait, keeping themselves apart, three (monthly) courses. And it is not lawful for them that they should conceal that which Allah hath created in their wombs if they are believers in Allah and the Last Day. And their husbands would do better to take them back in that case if they desire a reconciliation. And they (women) have rights similar to those (of men) over them in kindness, and men are a degree above them. Allah is Mighty, Wise.
2.282. But if he who oweth the debt is of low understanding, or weak or unable himself to dictate, then let the guardian of his interests dictate in (terms of) equity. And call to witness, from among your men, two witnesses. And if two men be not (at hand) then a man and two women, of such as ye approve as witnesses, so that if the one erreth (through forgetfulness) the other will remember.
4.11. Allah chargeth you concerning (the provision for) your children: to the male the equivalent of the portion of two females.
4.34. Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their property (for the support of women). So good women are the obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah hath guarded. As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart; and scourge (beat) them. Then if they obey you, seek not a way against them Lo! Allah is ever High Exalted, Great.
Equally, in numerous hadiths on which are based the Islamic laws, we learn of the woman's role - to stay at home, to be at the beck and call of man to obey him (which is a religious duty), and to assure man a tranquil existence. Here are some examples of these traditions:
The woman who dies and with whom the husband is satisfied will go to paradise.
A wife should never refuse herself to her husband even if it is on the saddle of a camel.
Hellfire appeared to me in a dream and I noticed that it was above all peopled with women who had been ungrateful. "Was it toward God that they were ungrateful?" They had not shown any gratitude toward their husbands for all they had received from them. Even when all your life you have showered a woman with your largesse she will still find something petty to reproach you with one day, saying, "You have never done anything for me."
If anything presages a bad omen it is: a house, a woman, a horse.
Never will a people know success if they confide their affairs to a woman.
It will be appropriate to include two quotes from the famous and much revered philosopher al-Ghazali (1058-1111), whom Professor Montgomery Watt describes as the greatest Muslim after Muhammad. In his "The Revival Of The Religious Sciences," Ghazali defines the woman's role: [4]
She should stay at home and get on with her spinning, she should not go out often, she must not be well-informed, nor must she be communicative with her neighbours and only visit them when absolutely necessary; she should take care of her husband and respect him in his presence and his absence and seek to satisfy him in everything; she must not cheat on him nor extort money from him; she must not leave her house without his permission and if given his permission she must leave surreptitiously. She should put on old clothes and take deserted streets and alleys, avoid markets, and make sure that a stranger does not hear her voice or recognize her; she must not speak to a friend of her husband even in need. ... Her sole worry should be her virtue, her home as well as her prayers and her fast. If a friend of her husband calls when the latter is absent she must not open the door nor reply to him in order to safeguard her and her husband's honour. She should accept what her husband gives her as sufficient sexual needs at any moment. ... She should be clean and ready to satisfy her husband's sexual needs at any moment.
Such are some of the sayings from the putative golden age of Islamic feminism. It was claimed that it was the abandonment of the original teachings of Islam that had led to the present decadence and backwardness of Muslim societies. But there never was an Islamic utopia. To talk of a golden age is only to conform and perpetuate the influence of the clergy, the mullas, and their hateful creed that denies humanity to half the inhabitants of this globe, and further retards all serious attempts to liberate Muslim women.
What Rights?
The inequality between men and women in matters of giving testimony or evidence or being a witness is enshrined in the Koran: sura 2.282 (quoted above).
19 of 22 Arab countries, women cannot vote. In Egypt, women if you want to divorce your husband you have to go to court. If a man wants to divorce his wife if he just has to say what they call the triple telac: I divorce thee, I divorce thee, I divorce thee.
In Saudi Arabia, women cannot drive a car, sail a boat, or fly a plane. Last I checked, cars weren't around for the vast majority of today's cultures but only in backwards Islamic countries would they adhere to something as stupid as "cars weren't around when Islam was developed" and extrapolate from that, that women should not be able to drive. What remote sense does that even make? What is the correlation between the two?
Can you honestly read everything I have written and suggest Islam is good for the wellbeing of women? I can give numerous specific examples of the horrors for women in Islam. Just the entire concept of making women cover themselves from head to toe is absurd.
