Re: Muslim Women's condition
Nice topic. To be fair, most domestic violence against women is because of a culture (prevalent in many countries irrespective of religion) which gives too much control to men over women's lives and its society has an intrinsic societal gender bias towards men. Add to that the idea of objectifying women by attaching "honor" to them and their actions. Bottom line is that Muslim men like all men, hit women because they can get away with it in their respective societies.
But may I ask why you are surprised that Muslim men don't do what their religion clearly tells them to? I don't think its just ignorance. I think it's because, to human nature there is nothing more important in life than life itself. God/religion fill their compartmentalized purpose in people's lives but don't dictate all aspects of their lives.
Finally, I don't agree with your assumption that Islam completely prohibits violence against women as I think one way or other, Islam left the door open to allow some kind of "conditional" violence if women does xyz, instead of simply strictly forbidding violence by putting a verse in Quran against it. I don't think the men who hit women do it because of they misinterpret this verse (they would do that anyway) but God must have known that a certain minority of jerks would misinterpret this verse or use it to justify their actions.