BBOG 365: A Year Without Our Girls by Amir Ado

'"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!