Voice of America, November 10, 2014
While 15% of the population in Iran is illiterate, the illiteracy rate in Western Azerbaijan province is 20%.
The deputy head of the Western Azerbaijan education department has revealed that 563,000 people in the province, or 20% of the population over the age of 6, are illiterate, and 67% of them (375,000 people) are women.
Western Azerbaijan is one of the provinces in Iran with the highest illiteracy rates. According to the latest data released by the Iranian government's statistics center, approximately 15% of the country's population is illiterate.
Experts argue that the number of illiterate people is higher than the official statistics released by the government. Some experts believe that the information on illiteracy rates in the Islamic Republic of Iran is inaccurate.
According to statistical data on literacy rates in Iranian provinces, illiteracy is generally higher in regions inhabited by non-Persian populations.
In the Azerbaijani regions, illiterate women often cannot read or write in Persian, and in many cases, they are also unable to speak the language.
According to reports released by human rights defenders, women who do not speak Persian face serious difficulties in court processes in Iran and may sometimes face harsher sentences.
Referring to statements by Amnesty International, it has been noted that some defendants who do not understand Persian do not comprehend the charges brought against them. The international human rights organization, including in the cases of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani and Shamama Ghorbani, who were sentenced to stoning in previous years, has pointed out that they only spoke Turkish and did not understand the Persian documents they were forced to sign during interrogation.
Link to the original text in Turkish on the Azerbaijani section of Voice of America:
Qərbi Azərbaycanda savadsız əhalinin üçdə ikisi qadındır