Head of Literacy Organization Reports Nearly Two Million Illiterate Women in Iran

On Friday, April 10, the head of Iran's Literacy Movement Organization, Ali Baqerzadeh, announced that there are nearly two million illiterate women across the country. According to the Iranian Labor News Agency, ILNA, Baqerzadeh stated that there are approximately 1.8 million illiterate women in total. He noted, '... we have about 2.7 million illiterate individuals aged 10 to 49, of which nearly 1.8 million are women.' He also mentioned that the gap in literacy rates between women and men in Iran 'has decreased in recent years.' The current literacy gap between women and men is reported to be '12 percent.' Baqerzadeh pointed out that 'the rate of illiterate rural women is much higher' and that 'illiteracy in some provinces exceeds 30 percent.' The literacy rate in Iran is not very clear and officials provide varying statistics on the number of illiterates at different times. Baqerzadeh himself had previously reported nearly 9 million absolute illiterates in Iran in August 2017. He mentioned that the figure of 8.8 million was based on the 2016 census by the Statistical Center of Iran, following the identification of these individuals as absolute illiterates. At that time, he stated that the literacy rate among those aged 10 to 49 was 94.7 percent, indicating that there were still 2.7 million illiterates in this age group. Now, he has reported that among them, 1.8 million are women. The Literacy Movement Organization is a government agency established in 1979 by the order of Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, to teach reading and writing to adults who do not have access to school.