Your original observation, given due to outdoors frustration with males sabotaging his efforts to open a mens DV shelter, acknoledging automatic mens provide and protect responseS to women and children is universaly correct [including amongst mohameddans.]
If muslim chivalry was of the same strength and nature of Teutonic Chivlary (adopted and expanded by Christianity) then how do you explain the following phenomena:
1. Honor killings targeting mostly women.
2. The expectation that women must uphold their behavioral code _before_ their own lives.
A FEW OBSERVATIONS SHOULD GIVE CONTEXT TO MOHAMEDAN STYLE CHAUVENISM VERSUS TUETON CHAUVENISM FROM WHICH WE ALL SUFFER AS MALES
1 Right now the so called rabid patriarchal taleban have executed the two male south koreans they've held as hostages for some time but are negotiating the position of so many held women. Secondly, the Sunni taleban variant in iraq who were viscious cut throats to male captives in many cases released female captives. Or at worst let them die of bullets not blades. Thirdly even the saudi executions of criminals are in majority of men. They are chauvenist bigotts but not misogynist.
That is because female executions are done by the men of the family, not the government.
Look at the sex ratio in Saudi Arabia:
Saudi Arabia 1.2 1.05 1.04 1.33 1.13
Compared to parity, that is a lot of missing women. Where are they?
I think it's an uphill battle to argue female-favoritism in a society that practices female infanticide, female sex-selective abortion and honor killings.
4 The withdrawal of mohamedans and middle easterns, male or female, from casual touching, nudity, kissing, talking to strangers or excessive open laughter in public are all cultural resrictions and codes designed to maintain integrity between the sexes, politness between strangers, and other good morals related to an honest and clean way of living. That is in spite of external and elemental conditions.
It also reduces the scope of female sexual power.
In short an honest anthropologist visiting the middle east and studying the strictures of arabian culture or religion will understand everything as developed in service of maintaining integrity and order amongst a poverty ridden people.
Saudi Arabia has no economy. The only economy that exists is providing consumer services to the huge amount of people that recieve oil money.
Bedouin men and women live traditional lifestyles, in a traditional lifestyle the man may have dominion outside of the home but that does not mean the woman is not providing _in_ the home. In fact saying as such could amount to applying our fifties-created notion of 'providership' to a situation in which it makes no sense(almost complete absense of jobs.)
Producing goods for sale, animal husbandry, gathering-- all these are done by bedouin women to support their families. They aren't sitting in a tent filing their nails and getting window treatments.
*edit* The other thing is... do they mean 'provide for the family' or 'provide for their wife'. Big difference.
As for women being part of the legislature. That's just bizarre as Saudi Arabia is a totalitarian regime. There _is_ no legislature.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consultative_Assembly_of_Saudi_ArabiaContradicts the nationmaster report entirely. Of course it's wikipedia.
How can our notion of chivalry exist in a society where a woman is expected to uphold her behavioral code over her own life?