This again is a subject shrouded in the mist of time. Except for the following verse, which also doesn't favour any discrimination between man & woman, Islam has given more or less equal rights to both the genders.
Alr-rijaalu qawwamoona-alun-nisae
Let us not forget, that it was first time ever that women were regarded as equal partner with men, and they exercised the right to hold property. Men couldn't deprive them of the property their wives, sisters, or daughters acquired through inheritance or by their personal labour or by undertaking any commercial venture. It was enjoined upon every Muslim male to give their alimony and/or the compensation for suckling their progeny and maintaining their household.
What the mullah is preaching today, are remnants of Israelites who held a sway during pre-Islamic period. Though not incumbent upon them, yet they were participating in Jihaad and performing nursing duties: because Jihaad was not forbidden (though not mandatory) for them.
Besides, every Muslim child was told that they must obey & serve their mothers, because
Paradise lied under the feet of their mothers.
May Allah grant us the wisdom to acknowledge women's rights, because we are nobody to deprive them f the rights that Allah has granted them.
Jameel Zaidi
Subject: WOMEN FREEDOM 