The extremists are afraid of books and pens, the power of education frightens them. They are afraid of women.
The biggest gaps between male and female literacy are in Southern Asia, Northern Africa and Southwestern Africa. In India, when the number of illiterate boys is subtracted from illiterate girls, the result is more than 4.2 million ‘extra’ girls who cannot read or write; in Nigeria it is more than 2 million, which is almost 15%of women aged 15-24 there.
The most ‘extra’ female illiteracy in the Middle East is in Yemen; in Eastern Europe it is in Turkey; in South America it is in Guatemala; and in North America it is in the United States.
