Warning : this is a horrifying story.234 vernal women were abducted from a cathartic test in Nigeria , specifically to keep them from catch an education . Nothing is being done to find them . corporate populace outrageis the only tool that can mayhap get a search started . update at the bottom .
Over 200 students were abducted from this school in Chibok , Nigeria . 234 are still miss . Haruna Umar / AP
The students were load up into a truck at gunpoint , and take into the forest . It is assumed that the kidnapper were Boko Haram , an radical group whose name means , “ westerly Education Department is iniquitous . ” The idea of allowing daughter to get an educational activity , and , worse , yet , a science breeding , is everything they hate . They have alocal historyof doingcrazy , horrifying things , like assassinating clerics who criticize their extremism , bomb schools , murdering students , and kidnapping girls to use as sexual urge slaves . At the time of the kidnapping , every other school in the area was close down due to surety business concern , but this school was kept open specifically to take final test , with over 100 taking a physical science test . Their parent say that if they ’d done well on their exam , many of the charwoman were hoping to pursue higher education .
The world has a lot of terrible , horrible thing go on in it , butthis is insane , crazy , and heart - breaking . I ’m a female scientist in Canada , where theMontreal Massacreis an yearly monitor of the power of hatred , sexism , and fierceness in fix womanhood ’s approach to pedagogy . I ’m a geophysicist who ran a field crew in Africa , ferment in a inner circle straightaway next to a school and hiring locals who told me about their pipe dream for the future tense . I sleep together this first - hand : pedagogy is a brawny tool for reshaping the worldly concern , and making this a better , cooler , more interesting place to subsist . This shit can not be brook .
I do n’t usually have much faith inclicking - for - activism , but publically announce scandalisation is the only tool we have to get a search started . These girls ca n’t even number on their own government activity to look for them . AsRebecca Watson write :
The Nigerien government is doing less than nothing – at one stage they announced that the girls had been found and deliver , but the parent divulge that was a Trygve Halvden Lie . The parents are spending their own money to hire motorcycles and car to trek into the forest , and coming back empty - handed .
So , snuggled between stories of awesome scientific discipline and bad - ass science fiction , here ’s my harsh shift to reality . Raise awareness for this write up . Sign the Change.org petition demanding the Nigerien government activity commence an real , real hunt . This news is downright stale — the kidnapping occurred over a week ago on April 15th — so if you ’re only hearing about it now , turn around and slap your news - supplier for ignoring it . Ask your local paper or television news post why they are n’t covering the story when kidnapping 234 student out of exam anywhere in Europe or North America would elicit screaming newspaper headline and constant reportage . If you ’re on Twitter , propagate awareness with the hashtagshelpthegirlsandbringbackourdaughters .
Maybe it will do nothing . But peradventure , with enough pressure and scandalisation and corporate public need intohow the fuck 234 miss can be take from their classroom , we ’ll get enough overplus to get a existent search set off .
UPDATE APRIL 30 : Some of the missy have been forcibly espouse off , and Boko Haram may be open to releasing the rest . Three died , and 18 are sick .
UPDATE MAY 1 : US Senate might formally doom the kidnapping . adjoin your representatives to get them to support the firmness .
UPDATE MAY 5 : drawing card of Boko Haram brags about selling the daughter .
UPDATE MAY 6 : More little girl were kidnap , this time 12 to 15 year old abduct from their homes . The only silver of silver lining in this is that Boko Haram is n’t an ignored evil in a disconsolate vestige any longer , but trap in a spotlight of global outrage that might actually start conduct with the problem . Yes , as discussed below , it ’s one seriously complicated job with no sluttish localization , but “ ignore it ” was n’t working .
UPDATE MAY 7 : Now it ’s being reported thatBoko Haram has go on another killing spree . I do n’t understand , I do n’t have an response , and I do n’t know if murmuring of send UK or US special forces into the region will solve anything . This is all utter insanity , and every new update enforces the dead insanity of every aspect of this situation .
The Discussion yarn is pretty vivid , so here ’s some highlights :
If you have a web internet browser - extension that forces HTTPS - only , thelink to the petition wo n’t work .
sugabelly , a southern Nigerian , provides local contexthere , here , here , and other hoagy - threads in the same region of the varlet . sugabelly start up a new thread on the class - war scene of this situationhere . This context of use is starting to get into the mediahere .
mazzzystarrrs and southern Nigerien ciwrites give diachronic context on the 1966 civil warhereandhere .
wcullen , a former UN combat solider , provides context of use as to why the UN has n’t make involvedhereandhere . mazzystarrs has recommendation for effectively contacting your local UN officehere . The UN has a formal statementhere .
mazzystarrrs is trying to brainstorm extra action - quantity for building pressure besides the petition to the Nigerian regime ( which is copied to the United Nations)here .
A lot of people are pointing out that after this long , a glad solvent is extremely unlikely . Althoughexact numbersaredifficult to verify , out of the parent - created tilt of234 missing students(althoughnot all parents may have describe their children missing ) , theschool reports up to43 53 girls managed toescape into the forestand are home . Historically , Boko Haram keeps kidnapped women alive as “ servants”so the young women may be alert .
It ’s a FAQ why I do n’t list variant - of - extremist , so I answer thathere .
The petitionhad under 4,000 signatures at the sentence of initial issue . At the time of this update , fewer than 10 % of hoi polloi who understand this article have signed .
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