What This Whole #BringBackOurGirls Thing Is About And Why You Tweeting It Can Help!
Two weeks have passed since the militant group Boko Haram abducted 234 school girls from their boarding school in northern Nigeria.
The teenage girls, who range in age from 16 to 18, were taken from their dormitories at the Government Girls Secondary School in the town of Chibok on April 14 and taken away by trucks in the middle of the night. There are now reports that indicate the school girls, who were thought to be held hostage in the Sambisa Forest, have been sold as brides to Islamic militants for 2,000 naira, or $12.( source)
Why is this important to women of colour all over the world?
Whether it be in Nigeria, the UK or the United States, black girls are being abducted, go missing, are sold into sex slavery, or married off and the is not enough media coverage about what is happening.
If you compare this with what happens when a 3 year old white girl goes missing, its shameful.
What are we ourselves as black women doing to speak up for our fellow women of colour that are stolen off our streets everyday? It is easy to feel powerless, especially in a case like the 234 girls in Nigeria, especially if you cannot even pin point Nigeria on the world map.
You have a powerful tool in your hands, social media.Use it to speak up about the issues affecting us, whether it is sex, slavery, unfair work conditions, or simply what is happening in your neighborhood.
What does this do? It keeps the issue in front of our eyes and we get media coverage.This deters from ignorance on important issues and sparks change, within us and around us.
#BringBackOurGirls is the hashtag being used on social media to speak up about this atrocity.
How can 234 girls be abducted and sold in the world we live in today?
You may think it will never ever happen where you live.
Twaambo
FAWF Social Issues Corespondent, Germany
May 4, 2014
Thank you for writing about this. I am a Nigerian woman who lives in Nigeria and I know just how painful this is. So thank you for raising awareness. Thank you!
May 4, 2014
No problem Tomilola! It was for us all, so know that we’re just as thankful for women like you! Please be safe and keep us updated on any new news that may not be getting reported here!
June 3, 2014
‘What are we ourselves as black women doing to speak up for our fellow women of colour that are stolen off our streets everyday?”
What are we doing? from my personal experience alot of black women and just women in general are judging the women and girls that they see everyday who could possibly be a victim of this same crime and don’t even know it. In the U.S. trafficking doesn’t look like what it does in other countries and more women and girls are being lured in everyday because they see no way out. They don’t see anyone willing to help them. I pray this will open up the eyes of not only what’s going on in other countries but what’s going on here in the U.S.