Father's literacy

There are two scenes in the movie that suggest that the father is illiterate. The first comes after he and Reda have gotten lost on their way to Belgrade. They stop at the roadside and Reda takes out a map and decides to turn around and take the freeway route. His father then points up the road and says that where he's pointing is the right way. Reda snaps,"How do you know? You can't even read."

Then in Turkey, the morning after Reda has stumbled back to their hotel room drunk, his father scolds him and says,"You may know how to read and write, but you know nothing about life!"

However, two earlier scenes suggest that the father can read. In the first scene, they've left Belgrade and are back on the road. The father has glasses on and is holding a pen and sheet of paper. The paper is apparently the bill from the hotel where he and Reda just spent the night since he asks his son whether he used the hotel phone. Reda lies that he hasn't and his father lifts the paper closer for a better look.

A couple of scenes later, the father is again seen with glasses on, this time with an open book, and again, seeming to read.

Could the father read a little, but only a little, or was there something else going on? In the scene with the book, the book looked to have been printed in Arabic, so maybe the father could read the Arabic alphabet, but not the Latin one.