I know many conservative Christian women who live with exactly the same fears. It is control and abuse, nothing more. It shouldn't scare you from the Muslim perspective.

relationship.

institutional oppressions. The author is from Lebanon where a husband can list his wife's name at border crossings to deny her travel outside the country. Is the same done to American women of any religion by the government? Do we let some guy call INS and say 'don't let my wife go to Canada'? No, no we don't.
Also, just fyi, control and abuse are scary from any perspective, to say it is 'abuse and nothing more' is also scary.

certainly does not represent the experience of Muslim women in general, as she states at the end.

The difference is that I think this kind of situation has both judicial and cultural support in some places, and that is what makes it so scary.

A woman suffering this kind of abuse here ostensibly has some legal recourse.

A Legal Guide to Being a Lebanese Woman (Part 1)
http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/376/a-legal-guide-to-being-a-lebanese-woman-%28part-1%29

I would recommend everyone who reads this OP at least look at the chart contained at your link.

It is really frightening, particularly the parts on rape and "honor crimes".

The law is a joke. Some countries especially in that region often come up with ridiculous rules as a result from their strong patriarchy tradition, and often they're "using" religion to justify those silly rules so everyone will obey.

It isn't the religion that's sexist. It's the "strong patriarchy tradition".

... as if the religion had nothing to with forming the "strong patriarchy tradition", reinforcing it, or sustaining it into modern times.

It could be that one is used to reinforce the other.

I suspect there was a fair degree of patriarchy prior to organized religion. And patriarchy remains a problem in cultures where religion plays no or only a minor role.

Lastly, their are religions where patriarchy is not an issue.

So, what's typical?

No, religion didn't invent sexism. Yes, sexism can exist without religion. Through neither of these premises can we conclude that Islam is not related to current attitudes towards women across the Islamic world.

In this case it's not, I just see the religion is being abused to create a law that oppress Lebanese women. For example, the "honor killing" law (see the link given by Bluenorthwest above), do you really think this came from religion? there is no such thing as honor killing in Islam, and those who committed such crime should be punished EQUALLY regardless of the gender according to Islam, which is pretty much the opposite according to this ridiculous law, so that's clearly tradition not religion. Islam was born when the people in Mecca bury their daughter alive to protect their honor, because they feel ashamed if they don't have a boy as their first child, Islam forbid this practice and it stopped after Islam ruled in Mecca.

Yes there are some different rules toward men and women in Islam, like women are recommended to wear hijab (not burqa or veil) while men are not, but not in an oppressive scale (of course you can say that it's my opinion and you can debate this if you do have sufficient knowledge on the matter).

Another example, in some places women are forbidden to have a job or career and they also refer it to Islam, WTF??!! Khadijah, the first wife of prophet Muhammad was a successful business woman, so it's clearly that religion is being abused here.

What's typical is people that only learn about religion from the news or blog posts regarding terrible things being done by people in the name of religion then create assumptions without sufficient knowledge. Learn the teaching from its sources so you can make an objective point of view.

...is regressive today.

Yes, Islam did away with a few particularly appalling practices endemic to the Arabian peninsula fourteen hundred years ago, yet the Qu'ran and the Hadith are still littered with passages reflective of the sexual attitudes of the time.

Such as...

Your women are a tilth for you (to cultivate) so go to your tilth as ye will - Sura 2:223

And call two witness from among your men, two witnesses. And if two men be not at hand, then a man and two women - Sura 2:282

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 them. Then if they obey you, seek not a way against them. Lo! Allah is ever High, Exalted, Great. Sura 4:34

As for those who accuse their wives but have no witnesses except themselves; let the testimony of one of them be four testimonies, (swearing) by Allah that he is of those who speak the truth; - Sura 24:6

Don't get me wrong. Islam is not unique here. Any code of conduct devised centuries ago is going to contain passages which are, by the standards of the present, abhorrent. The Bible certainly has its share of verses which, I feel, are comparatively worse than those I've listed above. Yet, both are dangerous insofar as people believe them to be the immutable word of an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, omnibenevolent being.