On the recent Mother’s Day holiday, many American mothers enjoyed cards, kisses and hugs, but for the Nigerian mothers of more than 200 missing school girls it was just another day of fearful waiting, another day added to the now weeks their girls have been missing.
Kidnapped and held hostage by Boko Haram, we continue to learn more about this group purporting a twisted Islamic doctrine as well as a violent opposition to the education of girls, and to Western education period. The group’s name articulates the depth of its opposition. Boko Haram translates loosely to mean ‘Western education is a sin.’
When I think of this horror, I imagine the girls’ sobs and screams swallowed by the unforgiving isolation of their makeshift holding cells---their cries for help shut down by their murderous captors.
Finding the girls is inspiring worldwide protests promoted by the social media campaign, #BringBackOurGirls. Recently, street rallies have sprung up across Europe, in Los Angeles and right here in Cambridge. The demonstrators are standing in support of the desperate and angry Nigerian mothers; they have taken to the streets chanting and shouting their demand that the Nigerian government find the girls and return them to their families.
The missing Nigerian schoolgirls are part of something much bigger than the hostage takers’ bloodthirsty screeds. These girls are capital in the underground dirty commerce of human trafficking. About 2.5 million people are trafficked around the world each year, with girls and women typically sold into the sex industry. The girls’ kidnapping also highlights the global crisis of child marriages common in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of South Asia. Nigeria’s neighbor, Chad, is a ready market for Boko Haram; it is one of several countries with the highest numbers of early and forced marriages.
Activists in the street and on social media have kept the girls’ story alive, and helped to get government support from the U.S., China, and the UK. But I am certain that a push from the world’s businesses would have a greater impact. When the World Economic Forum met earlier this month in Nigeria, attendees learned about the missing schoolgirls. If business leaders used their formidable economic leverage, they could insist on stronger action from a Nigerian president eager to engage in capitalistic partnerships.
Nigeria’s oil rich and tech savvy economy depends on an educated population. “If you educate a man you educate an individual, but if you educate a woman you educate a family,” African proverb says.
Tragically, some of the kidnapped girls’ mothers say if their daughters are returned to them, they will not allow them to go back to school. The world must intervene to make sure the Nigerian girls can go to school safely, and Boko Haram’s deadly extremist vision is not realized. Bring back our girls.
Callie Crossley is the host of Under the Radar with Callie Crossley.
