Why is the United States allied with countries like Iran and Sudan in opposing women's rights?

[ck4829]

A global women's rights treaty completed 30 years ago has a better-than-ever chance for U.S. Senate ratification this year, yet the hunt for the needed 67 favorable votes is likely to incur the wrath of activists on both the left and right.

Known as CEDAW (SEE-daw), the treaty's formal name is the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

Since its adoption by the U.N. General Assembly in 1979, all but eight of the 192 U.N. members have become a party to it — the United States is one of the holdouts, along with Sudan, Somalia, Qatar, Iran, Nauru, Palau and Tonga.

This year, with CEDAW-supporting Democrats holding power in Washington, Sen. Barbara Boxer plans a concerted effort to seek ratification as part of her agenda for a new Foreign Relations subcommittee chairmanship overseeing global women's issues.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090307/ap_on_re_us/women_s_rights_treaty

[Captain Hilts]

1. This sucks.

[Mika]

2. Because we're busy f-ing with Cuba and Venezuela and Bolivia and Brasil and...

.. the list goes on and on.

[Igel]

3. Nice framing.

Of course, the question is every bit as valid as, "Why do you want the US to mimic Saudi Arabia in protecting women's rights?"

Or, as I keep pointing out whenever I hear that X is like Hitler (X = *, Putin, or the boogeyman of your choice), Martha Stewart is like Hitler. And so's Ted Kennedy. They all use soup spoons when eathing their soup. And I'm like Hitler, too--I wear pants, Hitler wore pants.

Analogies can be meaningful or just indicate a surfeit of cotton wool between the ears.