Why does Iran have such a low literacy rate?

Question

They score surprisingly low (lower than Honduras, El Salvador, Saudi Arabia, Swaziland, and Botswana - to name a few).

Details here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_literacy_rate

They score a 77 out of 100

Answer 1

Probably due to their repression of women.

Answer 2

I think it behooves the religious authorities in theocratic nations to keep large portions of the population illiterate. It is usually when a population gains literacy and starts examining the religious texts that have shaped their society, that dissent arises. Either this dissent occurs as a result of variant interpretation that the individual comes up with, or it comes in the form of a complete abandonment of their faith if they come to the conclusion that their religious texts do not conform to rational thinking.

Notice this trend occurred in Christianity. The more literate a population became, the less inclined a people were to wage religious wars at the whim of Popes and others high in the clerical hierarchy. That is why atrocities like the Crusades could more readily take place before the Renaissance period than after.

Answer 3

An educated middle class would threaten the theocratic state of Iran. Most educated Iranians fled for their lives by 1981.

Have you heard some of the outlandish statements of the Iranian president, lately? He certainly doesn't sound like a very intelligent person.

Answer 4

One of the more compelling reasons is that woman in Iran are not educated nor are they encouraged to learn to read. The literacy rate of a culture that forbids fifty percent of their population to read has to be among the lowest.

Answer 5

All dicatatorships fear an educated populace, and unlike the stupid answer by tiger A, it has nothing to do with the intelligence of the women. Typical feminazi attitude.

Answer 6

Fundamentalist government puts religion above personal rights. They believe that the majority of the people are here to serve, not read and write.

Answer 7

BUT they study and know the Koran!
~~~~~~~~
The total thought of the Qurán is summed up in;

Qurán 9:5
""The Verse of the Sword""
"" Fight and slay the pegans wherever you find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem""

This shows the LOVE and PEACE that this book and islam is all about!

Answer 8

i am surprised by your statistics, although i visited your site and it notes limitations of data collection as well as generalization ability.

i am also surprised by some of the answers here. women education is not repressed...perhaps people are mistaking this for another country.

Answer 9

maybe because they don't allow the women to be educated,if u teach the girl the whole family will be educated,the girl is the main point!

Answer 10

because all their money goes to nuclear bomb programs, we all didnt get a mountain of resorces foolishly squandered to blow the world up 2oo times over you know ; )