In every Middle East or African country I have visited, I noticed the country is as ‘“advanced” as its women are, or as backward as its women. By this I mean, in areas where the women have been pushed into the background and kept without education, the whole area or country is just as backward, uneducated, and “underdeveloped.”

Where the women are encouraged to get education and play a more active role in the allaround affairs of the community and the country, the entire people are more active, more enlightened, and more progressive. Thus, in my opinion, the Muslim religious leaders of today must re-evaluate and spell out with clarity the Muslim position on education in general and education for women in particular. And then a vast program must be launched to elevate the standard of education in the Muslim world.

An old African proverb states: “Educate a man and you educate an individual; educate a woman and you educate an entire family.