Does the Qur'an actually prohibit women from being educated; or does it only allow them religious education?

It depends on which sect you are talking about.

No.
But the Koran has about as much to do with what is happening in the ME as the Communist Manifesto had to do with the Bolshevik revolution in Russia.

Don’t confuse the qur’an with the culture of the Middle East. They are related but not the same.

The Quran actually reveres woman and puts them on a higher plane because they give life. In the Quran, Marīam (which means Mary in Arabic), the mother Isa (or as us Christians call him Jesus) is considered one of the most righteous women in the Islamic tradition and its this that puts women on the pedestal.

Sometimes putting a woman on a pedestal means be like this or get stoned.

No there are no verses in the Quran that refer to educating women. There is one verse that says the wives of the Prophet should abide at home.

@MadMadMax What do you think would have happened to Mary in the bible if Joseph didn’t protect her by marrying her even though she was already pregnant

@creative1 Thats a simple question. She would have been stoned to death. If that story is real, and that part is doubtful, I would think their marriage was secretly arranged between her parents (she was like 13) and she was given to an elderly man; doing away with having to barter with another set of parents.

I can’t get a straight answer when i ask these questions of Muslims on Quora. They talk about everything except what you asked.

I want to know if “knowledge” in Muslim countries is limited to teaching religious knowledge.

I know several women that have come over here after either earning a degree in the technical field or a doctor so I don’t think its due to a religous aspect since they have colleges for women there however we are also speaking of 3rd world countries, where you have either the etremely wealth or the extremely poor as demographics and if the family is going to choose over a son or a daughter to get an education if they have the money to do so they will choose the son since its something more culturallly in grained in them than a religious thing, because it will be the son who will take care of his parents (typically the oldest son if there is more than one) when they get old and not a daughter. A daughter is usually married off and it is her new family who takes care of her well being. Women in poorer families are usually married off quite young so as not to burden the rest of her family. We are also talking of countries where arranged marriages are still done and quite often. The parents will also try find a family better off to marry their daughter/s.

Men and Women have equal rights to seek education in Islam.
(Quran20:114). Acording to a saying of Prophet Muhammad(SAW)“It is obligatory for every Muslim,male or female to acquire knowledge”(Al-Bayhaqi).
The only country or group of Muslim extremists that ban women from education are the “Taliban” group in Afghanistan. The rest of the countries don’t have any laws that prohibit women to be educated or pursue higher academic degrees. I stay here in Dubai and the Dubai Sheikh’s daughter Princess Haya studied in the United Kingdom, where she attended Badminton School for Girls in Bristol, Bryanston School in Dorset and later St Hilda’s College, Oxford University, from which she graduated with a BA honours degree in philosophy, politics, and economics. The problem with the Muslims in Taliban is that most of their top leaders are illiterate. Most of them don’t know to read and write. Malala Yousafzai was shot just because she fought to promote education for girls despite the threat of Taliban violence.