The Marlowsphere Blog #71
In the last week two events took place—separated by several thousand miles—that underscore the fact that where there’s illiteracy, there’s violence.
The first event took place on July 12, 2013 in New York City at the United Nations. It was a speech by Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai who survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban last year. As CNN reported:
Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai’s inspiring speech at the United Nations on every child’s right to go to school is just the beginning of a major push on education, former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Saturday. Yousafzai — who on Friday gave her first public remarks since she was shot by the Taliban last year for advocating that all girls should go to school — will return to the United Nations in September to press her point, according to a statement from Brown’s A World at School campaign.
There, the 16-year-old will demand action on behalf of 57 million children around the world who have no access to any schooling.
“They thought that the bullets would silence us, but they failed,” [Malala] said. “And then, out of that silence came thousands of voices.”
She also reflected on the very real dangers faced by teachers and students in Pakistan. Earlier this summer, a teacher was gunned down in front of her son as she drove into her all-girl school. A school principal was killed and his students severely injured when a bomb was tossed onto a school playground at a girls’ school in Karachi in March.
“Let us wage a global struggle against illiteracy, poverty and terrorism, and let us pick up our books and pens. They are our most powerful weapons,” she said. “One child, one teacher, one pen and one book can change the world. Education is the only solution. Education first.”
The second event took place thousands of miles away in Nigeria. A man who leads a group of Islamic militants called “Boko Haram”—which means “Western education is forbidden” in the Hausa language—threatens in a 15-minute video that more schools in Nigeria that teach western values will be burned. His name is Abubakar Shekau. As Michelle Faul of the AP reported on July 13, 2013:
Shaking a finger while cradling an assault rifle, the bearded leader of Nigeria’s extremist Islamic sect threatens to burn down more schools and kill teachers. But he denies his fighters are killing children.
In a new video released Saturday, Islamic radical Abubakar Shekau said he “fully supports” attacks on several schools in northeastern Nigeria in recent weeks. The United Nations Children’s Fund says at least 48 students and seven teachers have been killed since June, with some burned alive in a dormitory this month. “We support the work they did at the school, at Mamudo and Damaturu, and other attacks in other schools,” said Shekau, who wore military fatigues in the video. “We are going to burn down the schools, if they are not Islamic religious schools for Allah.” But Shekau insisted his fighters do not kill children.
He said his fighters would, however, attack teachers. “School teachers who are teaching Western education? We will kill them! We will kill them!” he warns, wagging his finger.
“The Quran teaches that we must shun democracy, we must shun Western education, we must shun the constitution,” Shekau said in the 15-minute video.
The extreme religious views of the Taliban and the Boko Haram cannot be ignored. However, putting this aspect aside just for the moment, both groups have at least one thing in common. They have evolved in parts of the world where illiteracy is high; in fact, not just high, but very high. The relationship between the illiteracy rate and the frequency of violence is not coincidental.
According to data collected by the CIA World Factbook, in Pakistan, for example, the overall illiteracy rate is approximately 45%. In Nigeria, the illiteracy rate is 39%. With respect to women, in Pakistan the illiteracy rate is 60% ; in Nigeria it is close to 50%. Globally, the illiteracy rate is 16%, a significant difference—but then the global rate is set against very high literacy rates in (mostly) countries in the 
Northern Hemisphere.
Again, according to the World Factbook, almost three-quarters of the world’s 775 million illiterate adults are found in only ten countries (in descending order): India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Egypt, Brazil, Indonesia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Of all the illiterate adults in the world, two-thirds are women. Note that Pakistan and Nigeria are #3 and #5 on this list, respectively.
Is it no wonder then that the men in these countries are so intent on keeping women—especially those who are teachers and students—illiterate? Literacy breeds thinking. It fosters opinions. It encourages independent attitudes. It also develops opportunities for innovation and economic productivity. Over five hundred years of the growth of literacy in Europe, the Americas, and Japan since the advent of the printing press in the mid-15th century have clearly shown that higher levels of literacy engender higher levels of living standards. This is especially true since the beginning of the 20th century.
What then is the problem? It is an historical fact that while Europe was in the throes of the Middle Ages, one of the darkest times in world history, the Islamic world was in the midst of a rich cultural growth spurt. It was the Muslim world, in fact, that reintroduced Europe to Greek and Roman classics, helping to create the burn that ignited the Renaissance. Today, however, religious extremists in the Middle East and Northern Africa, and parts of Asia where illiteracy is rampant are hell bent on turning back the clock culturally, using the precepts of the Koran as justification for their deadly actions.
The deeper causes, in my opinion, are less about religious concepts and more about acculturation. These are cultures where it is still the rule that men come first, and women come second; not merely a slight second, but a distance second. Again, in my opinion, the root cause is fear. These cultures are so deeply imbued with the concept that men are to be first and honored, regardless of their values or the extent of their abusive treatment of women, that for these same men to consider a woman to be an equal is so deeply threatening that their only recourse, apparently, is to resort to violence. You can see this not just in the Middle East or Northern Africa, but also in India where tribal concepts of who rules and who doesn’t and so-called honor killings are the norm. These are clearly antiquated moral concepts and values that don’t square with the values that have been engendered in more literate societies in the 20th and 21st centuries.
It is nothing short of a miracle that Malala survived the assassination attempt. But her recovery has to be in strong part a reflection of her own courage and strength. The question is: what is it going to take to evolve the antiquated moral values of peoples trapped in countries where little or nothing is done to foster education, especially education of girls? From this observer’s perspective, it is not just a deep cultural issue, it is also a reflection of the moral and ethical values of those who are in charge of these governments. It will change when economic pressures don’t serve those at the top anymore and the people at the middle and the bottom see better things for themselves.
Please write to me at meiienterprises@aol.com if you have any comments on this or any other of my blogs.
Eugene Marlow, Ph.D.
July 15, 2013
© Eugene Malow 2013