Are Muslim woman and man considered equal?

I know this is an obvious question, but I usually find some stories bias. Please include resources to back-up your opinion. Ok taking a very basic example...women can't look at the moon. And we shouldn't go outside after its magjib time. And men can do both of those. Also, there is an American friend and she is really into women's right (usually catholic women's right)....and whenever I talk to her, she mentions that Muslim women in other countries don't have rights. For example, she says in Saudi women can't drive. And we have to wear hijab, niqab, and abaya. I am a hijabi, so I just tell her we choose to wear hijab, in my case i was not forced. Or in Saudi, women use the taxi/auto ricksha and those are the main source of transportation. But then there are news where women are mistreated with such violence and abuse...that's hard to explain. And the main reason between those mistreat is when a man thinks he is superior to a woman.