TEHRAN – Literacy gap between women and men is decreasing in Iran, reaching to 12 percent compared to 40 percent three decades ago.

According to the latest statistics released by the Statistical Center of Iran, in the Iranian calendar year 1395 (March 2016-March 2017), the number of illiterate women was 5,569,035 while the number of illiterate men was 3,226,518.

However, the number of literate women in the same year was 29,753,843 and the number of literate man stood at 32,912,917.

Although the number of literate people, both men and women are equal at Iranian cities, there is a great gap of illiteracy between men and women in rural areas, head of the Literacy Movement Organization Ali Baqerzadeh has said.

Currently there exists about 1,800,000 illiterate women in Iran, he noted, adding that two thirds of illiterate people are women in the world.

A large number of illiterate children below the age of seventeen are depriving from a literate mother, i.e. there exists a direct and meaningful relation between parent’s literacy and children’s lack of education, Baqerzadeh explained.

The diagram of under-three-year-old children’s mortality rate proves that children’s mortality rate has a direct relationship with the education level of mothers, he added.

NM/MG