Thursday, July 24th marks 100 days since over 200 girls were kidnapped from their school in Chibok, Nigeria by extremist group Boko Haram. Since April 15th, nearly 60 girls have managed to escape their captivity, but efforts to recover the girls have been slow and bungled by a lethargic response from Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan's administration.
When local protests against the Jonathan administration's lack of action in finding the girls in the days after their abduction were dismissed, activists took to social media to bring attention to the crisis and bring international pressure on Nigeria's government. Nigerian lawyer Ibrahim Abdullahi is credited with creating the Twitter hashtag #BringBackOurGirls, which exploded around the world. In total, nearly 4 million Tweets have been sent out using the hashtag, although The Washington Post reports that activity has dropped, "from 488,000 tweets sent globally in early May to just under 7,000 tweets sent around the world earlier this week."
Boko Haram has certainly not made finding the girls easy. After releasing several taunting videos, one recently mocking the hashtag campaign and another previously explaining their intent to sell the girls as child brides, the extremist group continues to carry out attacks on schools and has reportedly split the kidnapped girls up into different locations.
“And while I think they’ve been located, at least some of them have been located, they have been split up as a group, and therefore it is very difficult to rescue one group without putting at risk the others,” former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, currently a United Nations special envoy for global education, told Yahoo Global News' Katie Couric. “It’s possible that some are in Cameroon. It’s possible that some are in Niger. It’s possible that some are in other countries now, and it’s also possible that the long-term plan of Boko Haram is to disperse some of them across the whole of Africa.”
Boko Haram was not the only extremist group to make headlines this week for its oppressive views on women; the United Nations said on Thursday it had received reports that militant group Islamic State (previously known as ISIS or ISIL) had ordered all girls and women in and around Iraq's northern city of Mosul to undergo female genital mutilation (FGM). Social media activity has questioned the reports, stating that the fatwa in question may be up to a year old, and questioning whether FGM was making inroads into a area that usually did not practice it. However, it may not be out of the realm of possibility for the group, which has forced Syrian girls to marry ISIS fighters (both as payment for foreign fighters and as a means of forging political alliances) and has raped and kidnapped young Iraqi women as they spread through the northern Iraq.
Sexual violence and the use of women as a pawn in war has been a largely ignored part of violent conflict for centuries, but recently more and more international aid groups are turning their attention to the consequences and prevention of violence against girls and women in conflict zones. The United Kingdom has been particularly vocal about this issue, hosting the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict in June, and on July 22, 2014, hosting with UNICEF the first Girl Summit, officially described as an event "aimed at mobilising domestic and international efforts to end female genital mutilation (FGM) and child, early and forced marriage (CEFM) within a generation."
According to UNICEF, these two issues affect millions of young women and girls around the world. In a pre-event press release, UNICEF stated that "more than 700 million women alive today were married as children. More than 1 in 3—or some 250 million—were married before 15. Girls who marry before they turn 18 are less likely to remain in school and more likely to experience domestic violence." They also explained that while attitudes about FGM and child marriage are changing in some areas, the rates of occurrence for the two practices are not happening fast enough. "If rates of decline seen in the past three decades are sustained, the impact of population growth means the number of women married as children (more than 700 million) will remain flat through 2050; and up to 63 million more girls could be cut by 2050."
United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron explained his government's interest in tackling the issues of FGM and child marriage: "Of course, there are so many things, when it comes to tackling inequality, we need to address, whether it is equal pay or equal rights or fighting discrimination or equal opportunities, including in political life. But what seems to me is so important about these 2 issues is they are absolutely standing rebukes to our world that they still exist. And so when we think of the fight for equality, which should be at the heart of the commitments to the Millennium Development Goals, it’s absolutely clear to me that we’ve got to start with outlawing these practices, which is why today’s conference is so important. [...] These practices aren’t just simply a violation of girls’ rights. They are a total violation of the chance to enjoy your childhood and the chance to lead a fulfilling life. That is why these issues matter so much."
Malala Yousafzai took the stage to address the cultural relativism arguments that often arise in the debate over child marriage and FGM. "It's the duty of every person, boy or girl, to get education and to get knowledge. We are human beings and we make the traditions. We make culture and we have the right to change it. A girl is a human being and she should be respected. A girl has the right to be treated as a boy. A boy has the right to live his life how he wants. A girl needs to have that too—to choose who she marries and what she does with her life. The solution is educate the girl. Let's make her independent. When a girl gets educated she can be independent. Education is the best way to fight all of the problems we are discussing right now." (Malala spent her 17th birthday in Nigeria, brokering the first meeting between parents of the abducted girls and President Jonathan.)
The summit was not only an awareness-raising tool, but also designed to be a platform for building international capacity to end child marriage and FGM. The discussions began with the issuing of the Girl Summit 2014 Charter Document, reflecting the participants' goal of ending "child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation, for girls and women, everywhere, forever" and advocating for this goal to be "reflected in the post 2015 development framework." In addition, they also gathered international commitments to the goal of ending child marriage. As of publication, the charter had received commitments from international organizations including the African Union, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, UNICEF, Vital Voices, OXFAM, and the International Rescue Committee, as well as from national governments including the United States, Niger, Mozambique, Ghana, Ethiopia, Japan, Nepal, and Switzerland.
A website dedicated to collecting pledges from individual citizens to support an end to child marriage and FGM was also launched, collecting over 10,000 pledges at the time of publication.
Photo: Gov.UK
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Girls Summit Declares Goal of Ending Child Marriage and Female Genital Mutilation
July 24, 2014
Thursday, July 24th marks 100 days since over 200 girls were kidnapped from their school in Chibok, Nigeria by extremist group Boko Haram. Since April 15th, nearly 60 girls have managed to escape their captivity, but efforts to recover the girls have been slow and bungled by a lethargic response from Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan's administration.
When local protests against the Jonathan administration's lack of action in finding the girls in the days after their abduction were dismissed, activists took to social media to bring attention to the crisis and bring international pressure on Nigeria's government. Nigerian lawyer Ibrahim Abdullahi is credited with creating the Twitter hashtag #BringBackOurGirls, which exploded around the world. In total, nearly 4 million Tweets have been sent out using the hashtag, although The Washington Post reports that activity has dropped, "from 488,000 tweets sent globally in early May to just under 7,000 tweets sent around the world earlier this week."
Boko Haram has certainly not made finding the girls easy. After releasing several taunting videos, one recently mocking the hashtag campaign and another previously explaining their intent to sell the girls as child brides, the extremist group continues to carry out attacks on schools and has reportedly split the kidnapped girls up into different locations.
“And while I think they’ve been located, at least some of them have been located, they have been split up as a group, and therefore it is very difficult to rescue one group without putting at risk the others,” former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, currently a United Nations special envoy for global education, told Yahoo Global News' Katie Couric. “It’s possible that some are in Cameroon. It’s possible that some are in Niger. It’s possible that some are in other countries now, and it’s also possible that the long-term plan of Boko Haram is to disperse some of them across the whole of Africa.”
Boko Haram was not the only extremist group to make headlines this week for its oppressive views on women; the United Nations said on Thursday it had received reports that militant group Islamic State (previously known as ISIS or ISIL) had ordered all girls and women in and around Iraq's northern city of Mosul to undergo female genital mutilation (FGM). Social media activity has questioned the reports, stating that the fatwa in question may be up to a year old, and questioning whether FGM was making inroads into a area that usually did not practice it. However, it may not be out of the realm of possibility for the group, which has forced Syrian girls to marry ISIS fighters (both as payment for foreign fighters and as a means of forging political alliances) and has raped and kidnapped young Iraqi women as they spread through the northern Iraq.
Sexual violence and the use of women as a pawn in war has been a largely ignored part of violent conflict for centuries, but recently more and more international aid groups are turning their attention to the consequences and prevention of violence against girls and women in conflict zones. The United Kingdom has been particularly vocal about this issue, hosting the Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict in June, and on July 22, 2014, hosting with UNICEF the first Girl Summit, officially described as an event "aimed at mobilising domestic and international efforts to end female genital mutilation (FGM) and child, early and forced marriage (CEFM) within a generation."
According to UNICEF, these two issues affect millions of young women and girls around the world. In a pre-event press release, UNICEF stated that "more than 700 million women alive today were married as children. More than 1 in 3—or some 250 million—were married before 15. Girls who marry before they turn 18 are less likely to remain in school and more likely to experience domestic violence." They also explained that while attitudes about FGM and child marriage are changing in some areas, the rates of occurrence for the two practices are not happening fast enough. "If rates of decline seen in the past three decades are sustained, the impact of population growth means the number of women married as children (more than 700 million) will remain flat through 2050; and up to 63 million more girls could be cut by 2050."
United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron explained his government's interest in tackling the issues of FGM and child marriage: "Of course, there are so many things, when it comes to tackling inequality, we need to address, whether it is equal pay or equal rights or fighting discrimination or equal opportunities, including in political life. But what seems to me is so important about these 2 issues is they are absolutely standing rebukes to our world that they still exist. And so when we think of the fight for equality, which should be at the heart of the commitments to the Millennium Development Goals, it’s absolutely clear to me that we’ve got to start with outlawing these practices, which is why today’s conference is so important. [...] These practices aren’t just simply a violation of girls’ rights. They are a total violation of the chance to enjoy your childhood and the chance to lead a fulfilling life. That is why these issues matter so much."
Malala Yousafzai took the stage to address the cultural relativism arguments that often arise in the debate over child marriage and FGM. "It's the duty of every person, boy or girl, to get education and to get knowledge. We are human beings and we make the traditions. We make culture and we have the right to change it. A girl is a human being and she should be respected. A girl has the right to be treated as a boy. A boy has the right to live his life how he wants. A girl needs to have that too—to choose who she marries and what she does with her life. The solution is educate the girl. Let's make her independent. When a girl gets educated she can be independent. Education is the best way to fight all of the problems we are discussing right now." (Malala spent her 17th birthday in Nigeria, brokering the first meeting between parents of the abducted girls and President Jonathan.)
The summit was not only an awareness-raising tool, but also designed to be a platform for building international capacity to end child marriage and FGM. The discussions began with the issuing of the Girl Summit 2014 Charter Document, reflecting the participants' goal of ending "child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation, for girls and women, everywhere, forever" and advocating for this goal to be "reflected in the post 2015 development framework." In addition, they also gathered international commitments to the goal of ending child marriage. As of publication, the charter had received commitments from international organizations including the African Union, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, UNICEF, Vital Voices, OXFAM, and the International Rescue Committee, as well as from national governments including the United States, Niger, Mozambique, Ghana, Ethiopia, Japan, Nepal, and Switzerland.
A website dedicated to collecting pledges from individual citizens to support an end to child marriage and FGM was also launched, collecting over 10,000 pledges at the time of publication.
Photo: Gov.UK
