Researchers at Pew have said their analysis of data on the educational attainment of Muslim women across the world shows that religion plays a much less significant role in limiting their achievements than the wealth of the societies in which they live.
High-profile cases of Islamic extremists targeting schoolgirls—such as the kidnappings by Boko Haram of schoolgirls in Nigeria and the attempted assassination of Malala Yousafzai in Pakistan—fuel the perception that Muslim women are at an educational disadvantage primarily because of their religion, especially those who live in conservative societies.
But while it is true that Islamic cultures, societies and communities' chauvinistic attitudes to women can be limiting to their education—for example some are expected to marry young and build a home—in general that is no longer the case. It is the economic strength of a society that plays a much bigger role in determining the educational success of Muslim girls.
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