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Warning: this is a horrible story. 234 young women were abducted from a physics test in Nigeria, specifically to keep them from getting an education. Nothing is being done to find them. Collective public outrage is the only tool that can possibly get a search started.
Harsh Reality Break: 234 Girls Kidnapped from Physics Test
Over 200 students were abducted from this school in Chibok, Nigeria. 234 are still missing.
The scientists-in-training were loaded into a truck at gunpoint, and taken into the forest. It is assumed that the kidnappers were Boko Haram, an extremist group whose name means, "Western education is sinful." The idea of allowing girls to get an education, and, worse, yet, a science education, is everything they hate. They have a local history of doing crazy, horrible things, like assassinating clerics who criticize their extremism, bombing schools, murdering students, and kidnapping girls to use as sex slaves. At the time of the kidnapping, every other school in the area was shut down due to security concerns, but this school was kept open specifically to take the physics test.
The world has a lot of terrible, horrible things happening in it, but this is insane, crazy, and heart-breaking. I'm a female scientist in Canada, where the Montreal Massacre is an annual reminder of the power of hatred, sexism, and violence in limiting women's access to education. I'm a geophysicist who ran a field crew in Africa, working in a camp directly next to a school and hiring locals who told me about their dreams for the future. I know this first-hand: education is a powerful tool for reshaping the world, and making this a better, cooler, more interesting place to live. This **** cannot be tolerated.
I don't usually have much faith in clicking-for-activism, but publicly declaring outrage is the only tool we have to even get a search started. As Rebecca Watson writes on SkepChick, these girls can't even count on their own government to look for them:
The Nigerian government is doing less than nothing – at one point they announced that the girls had been found and rescued, but the parents revealed that was a lie. The parents are spending their own money to hire motorcycles and cars to trek into the forest, and coming back empty-handed.
So, on this Saturday morning, snuggled between stories of awesome science and bad-ass science fiction, here's my harsh break to reality. Raise awareness for this story. Sign the Change.org petition demanding the Nigerian government start an actual, real search. This news is downright stale: the kidnapping occurring over a week ago on April 15th. If you're only hearing about it now, turn around and slap your news-provider for ignoring it. Ask your local paper or TV news station why they aren't covering the story when kidnapping 234 female physicists out of an exam anywhere in Europe or North America would elicit screaming headlines and constant coverage. If you're on Twitter, spread awareness with the hashtags helpthegirls and bringbackourdaughters.
Maybe it will do nothing. But maybe, with enough pressure and outrage and collective public demands into how the **** 234 girls can be taken from their classroom, we'll get a search going.
Harsh Reality Break: 234 Girls Kidnapped from Physics Test
Over 200 students were abducted from this school in Chibok, Nigeria. 234 are still missing.
The scientists-in-training were loaded into a truck at gunpoint, and taken into the forest. It is assumed that the kidnappers were Boko Haram, an extremist group whose name means, "Western education is sinful." The idea of allowing girls to get an education, and, worse, yet, a science education, is everything they hate. They have a local history of doing crazy, horrible things, like assassinating clerics who criticize their extremism, bombing schools, murdering students, and kidnapping girls to use as sex slaves. At the time of the kidnapping, every other school in the area was shut down due to security concerns, but this school was kept open specifically to take the physics test.
The world has a lot of terrible, horrible things happening in it, but this is insane, crazy, and heart-breaking. I'm a female scientist in Canada, where the Montreal Massacre is an annual reminder of the power of hatred, sexism, and violence in limiting women's access to education. I'm a geophysicist who ran a field crew in Africa, working in a camp directly next to a school and hiring locals who told me about their dreams for the future. I know this first-hand: education is a powerful tool for reshaping the world, and making this a better, cooler, more interesting place to live. This **** cannot be tolerated.
I don't usually have much faith in clicking-for-activism, but publicly declaring outrage is the only tool we have to even get a search started. As Rebecca Watson writes on SkepChick, these girls can't even count on their own government to look for them:
The Nigerian government is doing less than nothing – at one point they announced that the girls had been found and rescued, but the parents revealed that was a lie. The parents are spending their own money to hire motorcycles and cars to trek into the forest, and coming back empty-handed.
So, on this Saturday morning, snuggled between stories of awesome science and bad-ass science fiction, here's my harsh break to reality. Raise awareness for this story. Sign the Change.org petition demanding the Nigerian government start an actual, real search. This news is downright stale: the kidnapping occurring over a week ago on April 15th. If you're only hearing about it now, turn around and slap your news-provider for ignoring it. Ask your local paper or TV news station why they aren't covering the story when kidnapping 234 female physicists out of an exam anywhere in Europe or North America would elicit screaming headlines and constant coverage. If you're on Twitter, spread awareness with the hashtags helpthegirls and bringbackourdaughters.
Maybe it will do nothing. But maybe, with enough pressure and outrage and collective public demands into how the **** 234 girls can be taken from their classroom, we'll get a search going.
Seriously?
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