Riddle me this? What does a sick extremist terrorist fear the most?
Answer: a little girl with a book in her hand.
Unless you’ve been under a rock, you’ve heard about Malala Yousafzai, the Pakastani schoolgirl who spoke out in support of girls’ education and was subsequently shot in the head by the Taliban. In the past month the stunned world has watched in sheer disbelief the plight of over two hundred and seventy schoolgirls ages 11-15 in Nigeria kidnapped by the latest proof that cousins should really not be allowed to marry, an extremist group called Boko Haram. Their leader… Wait, do I really have to call him a leader? Correction, their reigning sorry excuse for a mouthpiece (they call him Abubakar Shekau… I call him Moronic) had this to say:
“I abducted your girls. I will sell them in the market, by Allah,” a man claiming to be Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said in a video first obtained by Agence France-Presse.
“There is a market for selling humans. Allah says I should sell. He commands me to sell. I will sell women. I sell women,” he continued, according to a CNN translation from the local Hausa language.
Boko Haram is a terrorist group receiving training from al Qaeda affiliates, according to U.S. officials. Its name means “Western education is sin.” In his nearly hour long, rambling video, Shekau repeatedly called for Western education to end.
“Girls, you should go and get married,” he said.
So, let me get this straight, your whole political agenda is to end education? Girls hiking miles and miles through dangerous, war-torn terrain threatens you sooooo much that THIS is your go-to offensive objective? School girls? They just want to read.
Yeah, you know what, you pathetic excuse for a human being, and I certainly will never call you a man, you should be afraid. There is no place for you in our world. No real, educated woman, whose mind is truly her own would ever want you. No society would welcome your rapacious tendencies. You bring nothing to the table. You have no talents. You display no intelligence, let alone education, you have no ability to give, only to take. You are the antithesis of everything that makes up the word “community.”
And if I haven’t made myself plain, you are an unmitigated ass.
Everything we know about global economics says that educating women LIFTS society up to a greater standard.
- Educated women have fewer children- for every percentage point drop in population, the chances of civil war drops by FIVE per cent. This stabilizes a region and in the ensuing peace allows business, commerce, industry and innovation to flourish.
- An educated female populace leads to a drastic population wide reduction in infant and maternity mortality rates.
- “Educated women contribute to the quality, size, and productivity of the workforce. They can get better paying jobs, allowing them to provide daily necessities, health care, and education to support the family.” (Quote from Bloomberg Business Week)
- Women’s education is one of the major variables behind the rates of social and economic development. It’s the difference between your country being a third world train wreck and a major world power- yep- that’s the key difference.
- According to Wikipedia, notable economist Lawrence Summers says, “investment in the education of girls may well be the highest-return investment available in the developing world.”
Yep, what does a sick extremist fear the most? An educated woman. These depraved, roving gangs (Because that’s what they are- they aren’t patriots or soldiers or even rebels. THEY. ARE. THUGS.) went after the thing they feared the most. Not other soldiers, or the boys’ school who will grow up to fight them in a few years, the barracks down the road, a port on the coast- no, they went after girls, hiking miles every day to better themselves and their families’ lives. That’s what they’re scared of. They are sick, twisted and these young women? They deserve all our support, all the political might we can muster. Really, we can spend 90-plus billion on a war in Iraq based on lies, but there’s no support for 276 school girls kidnapped by a two-bit bandit and his posse of lame relatives? Come on Western World- we’re better than that. At least, we should be.
This week’s song is by Avicii and features Dan Tyminski on vocals (you may recognize him for his performance on Brother- Where For Art Thou?). A song acknowledging that we are stronger together, when the ying and the yang work as one, in synchronicity. It is not about one sex being stronger or better than the other- it’s about what we create when we let each other’s light shine. To suppress either sex ultimately suppresses us all. Please listen here.
“Brother / Sister”
(feat. Dan Tyminski)
Hey sister, know the water’s sweet but blood is thicker.
Oh, if the sky comes falling down for you,
There’s nothing in this world I wouldn’t do.Hey brother, do you still believe in one another?
Hey sister, do you still believe in love, I wonder?
Oh, if the sky comes falling down for you,
There’s nothing in this world I wouldn’t do.What if I’m far from home?
Oh, brother I will hear you call.
What if I lose it all?
Oh, sister I will help you out!
Oh, if the sky comes falling down for you,
There’s nothing in this world I wouldn’t do.Hey brother, there’s an endless road to re-discover.
Hey sister, do you still believe in love, I wonder?
Oh, if the sky comes falling down for you,
There’s nothing in this world I wouldn’t do.What if I’m far from home?
Oh, brother I will hear you call.
What if I lose it all?
Oh, sister I will help you out!
Oh, if the sky comes falling down for you,
There’s nothing in this world I wouldn’t do.
This post was written by Erika Gardner. If you enjoyed it, please sign up to receive updates on this blog. Or you can follow Erika on Twitter @Erika_Gardner or “Like” her Facebook page Erika Gardner- Writer and Storyteller. Check out her contributions to the BBB Blog.