Muslims constitute about 5th of the population of the world. Different Muslim societies have different cultures. Some of these cultures may be close to Islam while some others may be far away from Islam. Status of women in Islam should be judged according to authentic sources of the teachings of Islam on the subject and not by observing what individual Muslim do or what any Muslim society does. The Qur an which is the word of Almighty God.
Scholars differ at time.
This difference on many occasions can be removed by analysing the Qur an as a whole and not be deriving the meaning form one single verse. In cases of ambiguity many a time the clarification is given in some other part of the Qur an. To support one idea the scholars quote a source and ignore other sources. Islam believes in equality between men and women. The greatest misconception that Westerners have is that paradise in Islam is only for men and not for women.