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The Fear of an Educated Girl
On my first day of first grade, I cried when my father dropped me off in the schoolyard, scared to be left alone. In sixth grade, I worried about making friends in a new school. In eleventh grade, my knees shook when I stood up to speak at my school's speech contest.
I was afraid, but my fears were not unusual. I was a young girl going to school, and my fears helped me grow up.
But I was never afraid that someone might kidnap or kill me.
May 07, 2014
On my first day of first grade, I cried when my father dropped me off in the schoolyard, scared to be left alone. In sixth grade, I worried about making friends in a new school. In eleventh grade, my knees shook when I stood up to speak at my school's speech contest.
I was afraid, but my fears were not unusual. I was a young girl going to school, and my fears helped me grow up.
But I was never afraid that someone might kidnap or kill me.
Over 230 girls were studying for their final exams last month at a boarding school in Nigeria. When armed men arrived at their school and ordered them into trucks, the girls thought at first that it was an operation by the Nigerian military. But soon, they realized the danger they were in. The men revealed themselves as members of Boko Haram, a militant group ideologically opposed to education.
In the next days, a few girls managed to slip away from their captivity and return home to their families. But most of those girls are still missing, and their families are desperate. Some families have made their own rescue efforts but have returned without their daughters. And the Nigerian government has been slow to act, even spreading misinformation about the kidnapping.
Why were these girls targeted? Why is girls' education seen as such a threat by fundamentalists across the world? Why are girls opposed, even kidnapped and killed, when they try to go to school?
Because when you educate a girl, you open up a new world. You chip away at discrimination and barriers that hold girls back. You give girls the tools to elevate themselves as leaders. You give girls a platform to voice their ideas and dreams.
These girls strike fear into the hearts of scared but dangerous men. Boko Haram and other fundamentalist groups realize that a world of educated women is not one in which their tired bigotries and old privileges will survive.
The girls must be brought home. They must have the chance to return to the people who love them and to finish school - to become the dangers to a sexist world that they were meant to be.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Diana Duarte
Diana Duarte is communications director of MADRE, an international women's human rights organization
On my first day of first grade, I cried when my father dropped me off in the schoolyard, scared to be left alone. In sixth grade, I worried about making friends in a new school. In eleventh grade, my knees shook when I stood up to speak at my school's speech contest.
I was afraid, but my fears were not unusual. I was a young girl going to school, and my fears helped me grow up.
But I was never afraid that someone might kidnap or kill me.
Over 230 girls were studying for their final exams last month at a boarding school in Nigeria. When armed men arrived at their school and ordered them into trucks, the girls thought at first that it was an operation by the Nigerian military. But soon, they realized the danger they were in. The men revealed themselves as members of Boko Haram, a militant group ideologically opposed to education.
In the next days, a few girls managed to slip away from their captivity and return home to their families. But most of those girls are still missing, and their families are desperate. Some families have made their own rescue efforts but have returned without their daughters. And the Nigerian government has been slow to act, even spreading misinformation about the kidnapping.
Why were these girls targeted? Why is girls' education seen as such a threat by fundamentalists across the world? Why are girls opposed, even kidnapped and killed, when they try to go to school?
Because when you educate a girl, you open up a new world. You chip away at discrimination and barriers that hold girls back. You give girls the tools to elevate themselves as leaders. You give girls a platform to voice their ideas and dreams.
These girls strike fear into the hearts of scared but dangerous men. Boko Haram and other fundamentalist groups realize that a world of educated women is not one in which their tired bigotries and old privileges will survive.
The girls must be brought home. They must have the chance to return to the people who love them and to finish school - to become the dangers to a sexist world that they were meant to be.
Diana Duarte
Diana Duarte is communications director of MADRE, an international women's human rights organization
On my first day of first grade, I cried when my father dropped me off in the schoolyard, scared to be left alone. In sixth grade, I worried about making friends in a new school. In eleventh grade, my knees shook when I stood up to speak at my school's speech contest.
I was afraid, but my fears were not unusual. I was a young girl going to school, and my fears helped me grow up.
But I was never afraid that someone might kidnap or kill me.
Over 230 girls were studying for their final exams last month at a boarding school in Nigeria. When armed men arrived at their school and ordered them into trucks, the girls thought at first that it was an operation by the Nigerian military. But soon, they realized the danger they were in. The men revealed themselves as members of Boko Haram, a militant group ideologically opposed to education.
In the next days, a few girls managed to slip away from their captivity and return home to their families. But most of those girls are still missing, and their families are desperate. Some families have made their own rescue efforts but have returned without their daughters. And the Nigerian government has been slow to act, even spreading misinformation about the kidnapping.
Why were these girls targeted? Why is girls' education seen as such a threat by fundamentalists across the world? Why are girls opposed, even kidnapped and killed, when they try to go to school?
Because when you educate a girl, you open up a new world. You chip away at discrimination and barriers that hold girls back. You give girls the tools to elevate themselves as leaders. You give girls a platform to voice their ideas and dreams.
These girls strike fear into the hearts of scared but dangerous men. Boko Haram and other fundamentalist groups realize that a world of educated women is not one in which their tired bigotries and old privileges will survive.
The girls must be brought home. They must have the chance to return to the people who love them and to finish school - to become the dangers to a sexist world that they were meant to be.
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