@Tricky I am not sure which part of middle east you live in, but let me tell you something, that most Saudis and Muslims who live in cities and are educated they don't treat women in the way you are saying even the religious ones.
They admit that their religion says that but they don't apply it or they try to change the meaning and make it look nicer.
In my family at least no one did ever beat his wife, sister or daughter, I have heard a lot did that, and now if a man beat his wife she can sue him in the court and he will be sent to prison or feed for doing that.
Islam is a horrible religion anyway; when I left Islam in the first two years I was a militant atheist who criticizes Islam on internet forms day and night so you can't hate Islam more than me. Do you want me to list you how many things in which Islam was sexist? there are things that even most Muslims don't know:
-When you pay a compensation for killing someone mistakenly you pay half for a killed woman what you pay for a killed man.
- women, donkeys and black dogs -because black dogs are demons- disrupt the prayer if they passed in front of you while praying - it means you need to repeat it, it is not accepted-
- Women inherit half what men do.
- "And get two witnesses out of your own men. And if there are not two men (available), then a man and two women, such as you agree for witnesses, so that if one of them (two women) errs, the other can remind her." 2:282