This photo is mostly being talked about as a picture of human misery.  Poor girl, being chained for as long as he lives to a dirty old goat like that!  He is forty.  She is eleven.

But there is also an educational story here.  Mothers are the most potent drivers of education, as anyone who has ever taught small children quickly learns.  Children whose mothers push or entice them towards learning are off to a flying start.  Children whose mothers are indifferent to them learning, learn far less.  The more powerful women are in a society, the more this impulse asserts itself, the most educated societies – the early adopters of mass literacy, for instance - being the ones where women have always had the most clout.  By comparison, societies where women have low status compared to men tend, educationally, to languish.

But how can you measure the “clout” wielded by women?  One rough and ready but very telling way is to ask: What is the average age of women when they get married?  And: What is the difference between the average ages of men and women at marriage?  When the average age of marrying women is quite high - middle or even late twenties, say - and near to that of the men they marry, this signifies a society of near female equality and considerable female power, notably with regard to the rearing of children.  But when the average age of marrying women – marrying girls - is a lot lower than that of the men they marry, this signifies a society of severe sexual inequality, with women wielding far less power.  Women tend to be far less well educated when they become mothers, and that female drive towards education is blunted.  Educational advance suffers, not just for girls, but for everyone.

So, this is a very educational picture, and not in a good way.