‘Bring back our girls’

Abstract

In April 2014, 276 female students, aged 16-18 years, were kidnapped from an all-girls secondary school in Chibok in north-Eastern Nigeria by Boko Haram Islamist militants. Boko Haram targeted schools for supposedly teaching 'sinful' Western values and diverting students from traditional Islamic life and teachings. Girls in particular were targeted because, according to Boko Haram Islamic militants, girls and women should be married and not educated. The kidnapped girls were, according to the group's spokesperson, sold into sexual slavery or forced 'marriages' with Boko Haram soldiers (BBC News 2014).