Today is World Literacy Day and its high time that we take note of the alarmingly low levels of female literacy rates in Muslim countries and elsewhere. Female education is badly suffering due to religious fanaticism especially in the Muslim world. We are in dire need of brave spirits like Malala who have the courage to raise their voices in the face of religious extremism and gender injustice. Malala declared that
" I do not want to be thought as the girl who was shot by the Taliban, but as the girl who fought for education"
Pakistan has the lowest youth literacy rate.Only 59 percent females are literate as compared to 79 percent of males in the age group of 15 to 24 years. Nearly half of all women in the Arab World are illiterate. Saudi Arabia did not have a high school until after 1930, and its first girls school was established after 1950.