On the fateful night of 15th April 2014 over 200 girls aged 16-18 were kidnapped from Chibok, Nigeria in the middle of the night by a group of terrorists called Boko Haram. The girls attended a government Catholic school and were taken whilst sleeping in their school dormitories.
There have been a number of reported motives as to why this has happened. The group themselves have publicly given a number of reasons of why they chose to abduct these girls. A primary reason they stated was that “girls should not have been in the school and instead they should be married.”
This issue has outraged CARE. To have a group internationally claiming that education is not the right for every girl goes in direct opposition to what we stand for.
We are terrified to consider that these girls may have already been sold on, as there have been reported sightings of girls crossing borders. There has also been speculation that some girls may have been forced into marriage or sold to slavery.
There is a lot of public and global attention on this issue. These girls are not just the daughters of their Nigerian mothers and fathers, they are the sisters and daughters of the world. We demand that they be returned. The hashtag #BringBackOurGirls has been very popular in bringing together the voice of humanity to oppose this action.
We have seen celebrities standing up against this atrocious event, those such as Michelle Obama, Angelina Jolie, Emma Watson and Malala, are only a few names that have published pictures to state, “Bring back our girls”. Additionally men such as Ashton Kutcher, Justin TImberlake and Ludacris have published their images with the statement, “Real men don’t buy girls”. More recently at the largely proclaimed Cannes Film Festival, we have seen celebrities using this exposure to raise attention to this cause. On the red carpet itself so many were holding the signs of “#Bring Back Our Girls.”
There has been a cry for the local government to act, but now international military agencies have also become involved to help find these girls. This is a global priority.
The act of stealing girls in the night to prohibit them from attaining an education is highly regressive in what we are trying to achieve.
Every child, regardless of sex has the right to an education. No one should have the power to take this right away from any child.
To help or get involved please see http://en.minguo.info/ and use #BringBackOurGirls in conversations on social media sites. We can work together to send the message loud and clear, that we will not tolerate such injustice.
#BringBackOurGirls
Image sources:http://instagram.com/MrASingh | https://twitter.com/MrASingh
http://blog.lib.umn.edu/isoke001/gwss1005-2014/2014/04/real-men-dont-buy-girls.html
https://uk.cars.yahoo.com/photos/alien-creature-mystery-solved-in-south-africa-1373865179-slideshow/actress-producer-salma-hayek-holds-placard-reads-bring-photo-184632783.html
http://fiercemagonline.com/bring-back-our-girls/
