Right Q. Most of what is hampering the equality of women has to do with archaic views based on religious beliefs. The E.R.A. is long overdue in the Constitution because equal rights for women even in the US is threatened by patriarchal religious and political figures
who insist on the right to dictate what a woman does with her body.

True democracy needs to reach the US but theocracy stands in the way even here.
This is why it will be impossible for the US to act in an objective manner in the Middle East in any interventionist way. Without equality for the sexes, there can never be democracy.
Many women are walking about in the US today with metaphorical veils.