A Brief Point of View – Bring Back Our Girls

“We don’t learn the importance of anything till it is snatched from our hands.”  Malala Yousafzai

Have you read about or seen Malala Yousafzai speak?  She is the young Pakistani activist shot in the head on her school bus because of her views on the rights to education for women.  She survived the ordeal and ended up with a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize with her determined activism.  Malala Yousafzai’s story is what comes to mind when I think of the Nigerian women who have been taken from their school by ruthless, misogynistic, education hating militants. To paraphrase Malala, “Education is very important.  Education is the power for women and that is why terrorists are afraid of education. They do not want women to get education because then women will become more powerful.”  Take hundreds young women out of school and force them into marriage and slavery in 2014? Completely unfathomable.  Imagine how the world of these militants would crumble  if their “culture” was taken over by open-minded, educated women.  Women with the ability to challenge cruel and demented belief systems and social norms so abnormal they have no place on this earth.  I have no idea what makes terrorists tick.  They are clearly ignorant, subhuman, fearful, cowards.  If violence and atrocities are the way to impart a twisted misogynistic belief system, those who follow this are trying way too hard to prove nothing of value. I truly find human beings can be a complete disappointment.

NPR highlighted the 276 Nigerian women are only 1 group of recent victims of this kidnapping trend.  25 girls were taken two weeks ago and another 11 were taken this week from different parts of Nigeria. I would guess those are the counts publicized and likely there many stories similar to these in Africa and other places in the world.  It is incredibly disturbing and I am unsure what can be done about it since it is far bigger than me.   I realize it is not my job to come up with all of the answers; however, I have been asking myself for a week what those of us in the United State can do.  How do you protect people trying to live their lives in a world of terrorist and violence?  Awareness was the answer to my “what can I do question?”  I live on the same planet as the women fighting for education and their rights; yet my world is completely different.  It is difficult to comprehend a world in which a person has to fear their desires for education and live in fear if they are anything but a subservient woman.

Here is a link to the Malala Yousafazi’s inspiring, moxie filled interview with John Stewart on the Daily Show:

http://malalafund.org/

Here is the link to the NPR story referenced above:

http://www.npr.org/2014/05/07/310300812/kidnapped-nigerian-school-girl-escapes-talks-about-ordeal

 
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