Sulayman’s Stories

Translated version of Arab Bureau for Education of the Gulf States

Pakistan: Putting Pens into the hands of Adult Women

Islamic Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization: IESCO

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Bismillah,

One of the things that just boggles my mind is illiteracy in the Muslim world. Islam is the most scholarly religion; a religion that makes learning to read a requirement upon every Muslim man and woman. The first word revealed in the Holy Quran is “Iqra!” (Read!) Then why are so many Muslims illiterate? Take a look at these statistics:

CIA - The World Factbook — Field Listing - Literacy
definition of literacy: age 15 and over can read and write
Worldwide total population: 82%
male: 87%
female: 77%

note: over two-thirds of the world’s 785 million illiterate adults are found in only eight countries (India, China, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Indonesia, and Egypt); of all the illiterate adults in the world, two-thirds are women; extremely low literacy rates are concentrated in three regions, South and West Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Arab states, where around one-third of the men and half of all women are illiterate (2005 est.)

That, my friends, is not the bleakest part. Doing a quick spot-check on countries, it seems one part of the world is lagging;

Afghanistan
total population: 28.1%
male: 43.1%
female: 12.6% (2000 est.)

Pakistan
total population: 49.9%
male: 63%
female: 36% (2005 est.)

Morocco
total population: 52.3%
male: 65.7%
female: 39.6% (2004 census)

Egypt
total population: 71.4%
male: 83%
female: 59.4% (2005 est.)

Bangladesh
total population: 43.1%
male: 53.9%
female: 31.8% (2003 est.)

Compare this with other developing countries:

Honduras
total population: 80%
male: 79.8%
female: 80.2% (2001 census)

Dominican Republic
total population: 87%
male: 86.8%
female: 87.2% (2002 census)

Sri Lanka
total population: 90.7%
male: 92.3%
female: 89.1% (2001 census)

South Africa
total population: 86.4%
male: 87%
female: 85.7% (2003 est.)

Literacy, I’m quite sure, will solve many problems in people’s lives. It’s a critical first step towards knowledge and gives people opportunities. It’s part of the reason why the Ummah feels so behind much of the world today, at least that’s my opinon.

What is the solution? I say we form a new NGO (Non-Governmental Organization, like Unicef or Amnesty International) to promote literacy. It strikes me as strange that there’s only one other literacy NGO, Room to Read, but almost none of its countries are Muslim ones yet. If you do look around, it’s being done piecemeal, but the results make some very happy stories.

This is much bigger than I can do alone. Even Room to Read states, “In order to select a specific country, we have to look at a number of macro economic and education metrics, conduct on-the-ground interviews and research, and consult with other groups working in the area.” This is why they can’t expand that easily. We can do better, insha’Allah .

How do we start? I’ll need some people with expertise, and funding. In addition, you can’t just graft this overseas; does anyone know pro-literacy or education organizations that already exist in countries like these?

I will be taking the first steps to create this NGO over the coming summer, but I’ll need as much help as possible. If anyone is interested, email me and I’ll add you to the soon-to-be listserve.

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Today Apple unveiled some new Get a Mac ads, including one where PC is doing yoga. Doesn’t it look more like he’s trying to (poorly) do salat?

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