Illiteracy main obstacle for women’s progress in Thi-Qar, South Iraq

THI-QAR / IraqiNews.com: A group of active elements in Women’s Affairs in southern Iraq’s Thi-Qar Province have said on Sunday that “illiteracy represents the main obstacle for the development of women’s activity in the Province.” “The activity of the woman in society is still under the level of ambition, due to the obstacles related to the misunderstanding by the society for the role of women, as well as non-interaction with responsibility that had created complicated social problems. The most significant of these problems is the large percentage of women in the province who are illiterate,” Women’s Activist, Shatha al-Qaisy told IraqiNews.com news agency. Qaisy said that “the small number of illiteracy centers and absence of supportive measures, including minimum wages, have created an official failure, despite the presence of a large number of women, especially in countryside and tribal areas.” On his part, the Director of the so-called “July Organization” in the Province, Razzaq Obeid, told IraqiNews.com that “the obstacles are large, despite fact that some of them can be easily treated, in the event of the existence of seriousness towards the illiteracy in the Province that exceeds 34%, among 2 million people.” “The recent demonstrations that took place in the Province had been a clear evidence for the limited role of women in making decisions in this country, where thousands of people took to the streets, including one woman only,” he said. Thi-Qar’s Education Directorate is one of the largest directorates, comprising about 60,000 members. The percentage of illiteracy in the province has reached 34 percent of the total adult people, exceeding 2 million, while only 100 anti-illiteracy centers exist. The total number of education sections are steered by 3 education sections in the Province’s townships of Rifa’e, Shatra and Sooq-al-Sheyoukh, where about 850 schools, including 195 primary schools for girls, 636 co-ed schools, and 272 boys schools exist. SKH (TF)/SR 1273