Who Will Read Them the Voter's Pamplet?
President Bush has repeatedly made the point that he does not agree with those that believe that Arabs are not cabable of forming a democratic state. I hate to say I agree with anything Dumbass says, but I believe he's right on this point.
However, though I may not judge someone by his creed or ethnicity, I do reserve the right to judge him based on whether he can or cannot read. While perusing The Economist's World in Figures: 2004 Edition, I came accross a disheartening statistic: the adult literacy rate in Iraq is 39.3%.
Now, to put this in perspective:
- Only 8 nations have a lower adult literacy rate than Iraq, all in sub-Saharan Africa. (There are 33 sub-Sarahan nations with higher literacy rates than Iraq's.)
- The median adult literacy rate for Iraq's six bordering nations (Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Turkey, and Iran) is 80.4%, over twice that of Iraq's. (The next-lowest is Syria, at 76.9%.)
posted by VMM at 11:22 AM
3 Comments:
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Interesting post. Why is Iraq so illiterate?
Short answer: The treat their women like shit.
Iraq had a more or less improving standard of living until the eight-year war with Iran, during and after which, everything fell in the toilet.
The gender gap in illiteracy began to grow because of families' economic need; when given a choice to send a male child or female child to school, most chose to keep the girl home. UNESCO reported that in 1987 about 75 percent of Iraqi women were literate, but by the end of 2000 that number had shrunk to 25 percent.
Also, the population is very young, (median age around 19, 40% of population under 15) younger even than Egypt, probably in large part a result of the war with Iran.
Fertility rates are very high (obviously); only Paltestine and Yemen are higher. Extremely low literacy rate among girls, who start having babies at 14.
Also, educational opportunities were always limited for Kurds, Bedouins and people in rural areas.
Post a Comment
<< Home