'"Education is the most powerful tool you can use to change the world" - Nelson Mandela
It has been a year
since over two hundred precious jewels were so ruthlessly taken from
us by violent extremists. The Chibok girls were kidnapped
by the terror group called Boko Haram from their school dormitory in
North Eastern Nigeria. Their only crime was to want an education and
a better life. Just imagining the horrors they are going through
makes me sick to my stomach and as a Muslim it is insulting to see
Islam being used as a justification for these heinous acts.
Let us be clear, this
is not Islam. Islam does not permit the kidnapping of school girls,
Islam encourages education for both girls and boys – some might
even call educating your kids a religious duty. Islam forbids forced
conversions and strongly condemns the shedding of innocent blood. In
fact Islam teaches us that if you kill one innocent person, it is as
if you have killed the whole mankind. To use this religion of peace
as your justification for such terrible acts frankly makes you an
enemy of Islam.
A year on and our girls
are still not back. A year on and the agony of their friends and
families only increase. It is getting harder and harder to keep the
hope alive and with each passing day, they are further away from us.
However, we must not give up on them. It would be our collective
shame as a nation if we ever did. It would mean we have failed not
just those girls but ourselves.
For me, the most
important thing we can do right now is to ensure that we empower and
educate as many girls as we can. The economic benefits of having
millions of educated young ladies is enormous. We must make it a
priority to educate all our girls by shaking off harmful cultural
practices like early marriage and denying girls education simply
because they are girls.
If we do that then we
defeat the aim of the terrorists, we fight back and we let them know
that we reject them. They are afraid of education only because they
know that it exposes the frailty of their extremist ideology. The pen
must be our weapon of choice against extremism. It will be a tough
battle but together we can win it.
To my Chibok sisters
the only message I have for you is this – if by some miracle you
see this then know that we have not forgotten about you. We pray for
you every single day. We will not relent or rest until you are back
with us and are able to get the education you are sacrificing so
much for in perfect peace and harmony . To the incoming Nigerian
government and other world leaders – BRING BACK OUR GIRLS NOW AND
ALIVE!