[xcoder]

It depends on societies and The arab world is made by different societies many who are very close like KSA, Kuwait... The ones who are more open like Egypt , Syria... And more open like Lebanon.
The Lebanese society still have in many places still have the thinking of man goes to work and woman stay home raise kids and for bed even in some places families still choose the life partner of their daughter.
In another hand we can see big improvement when it comes to work where we can notice that woman became a very effective producer in the Lebanese society and occupying high ranks (except in politics unfortunately).
I believe that religious thoughts are a main reason to limit women's rights.
Let's not forget that a woman needs her husband approval to travel or to create a bank account... (which is very retarded and needs to be modified) even thought it's not being applied.