The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported that two out of three women in Yemen are illiterate and nearly half of primary school age girls do not go to school. Getting access to education, even primary school education, is one of the biggest challenges facing children in Yemen, especially girls.

According to the last official census, over 4.5 million out of 22 million, the total number of Yemen's population, are illiterate and the estimated nationwide illiteracy percentage reached 45.7 percent.

In contract, the percentage of illiteracy among rural women mounts to 62 percent while the percentage in urban areas is 54 percent. In most cities, the rate of school enrollment among girls is higher than boys. However, the percentage of girls' enrollments in rural areas is low, especially in secondary schools. The matter is more appealing in Yemen's remoter areas and provinces where there are very few or no girls enrolled in primary schools, let alone secondary school.

One of the problems young girls wishing to get educated face is the nonexistence of female teachers as most locals, especially in tribal areas, prefer female teachers to males to teach their daughters. "More young girls are deprived from education as many parents, particularly religious ones, only allow their daughters to be taught by women", said education manager  in Al-Baitha governorate Fahmi Al-Mawri. 

Numerous parents give priority to males to go to school while slightly more open-minded men do not show preference between their children as for going schools. "My parents are poor and they couldn't read or write. When I asked them to go to school they refused. They only allowed my two brothers to go to school", said 13-year -old Raja Ahmed.

In rural areas, the gap between males and females joining primary schools is bigger than urban areas and mainly because of the hard economic situation in the country where over 75 percent of its population live in the rural and sub-urban areas.  .

Further, some families are forced to send their children to join the labor market or to work as street vendors to help pay for the increased demands as well as the inordinate price hikes. "I studied only two years then my older brothers took me out of school to be a sheppard", said 16- year-old Nura Hasan.

Several female girls are forced to go to schools far away from their houses and this also leads some families to prevent their girls from joining such far schools. "After completing primary school, I couldn’t go to secondary school, some 8 km from my village, to continue my education," said 25 year old Jahmiah Ahmed. "I still want to go to school, but I don’t know how long I have to wait until the government builds a school near our village."

Nawal Ali, 23-year-old and married, recently joined an illiteracy eradication class, because she feels bad for not being unable to help her young brothers or children do their homework. 

Ali feels happy now and hints that she has been born once again as she can read what appears on TV's screen when her relatives ask her to do so.

"Customs, poverty, and lack of opportunities are main reasons why girls fail to join schools," said 25-year-old university student Abdullah Hamad hinting that many people put more emphasis on the economic burden than on people's principles when thinking of sending their children to schools.

Executive Director of Journalists Without Boarders Tawakel Karman pointed out that there are many indicators behind the low enrollment rates among girls in rural areas. She assured that those obstacles will not remain, as the government started to work on getting rid of obstacles that stand before female education.

Karman added that families in rural areas will send their daughters once they reach school age as long as these schools exist in their villages.