While mainstream media has been focused on Kim Kardashian’s latest selfie, 300+ Nigerian girls were kidnapped by Islamic terrorists and are currently being sold into sex slavery for $12 each. Worse, this happened THREE weeks ago. Why have so few of us heard about this atrocious crime? It’s a question we could give a very long answer to, but unfortunately it could get far too disgruntled and snarky. We’ll just leave it at three simple words: grossly misplaced priorities. Also, had this been 300+ American or European girls the media coverage and political intervention would have been far more swift. We won’t be covering any beauty or fashion today because this issue needs as much coverage as it can get.
Today Nigeria’s Islamic extremist leader officially claimed responsibility for the abductions in a videotaped statement, according to The Associated Press. “I abducted your girls,” said the leader of Boko Haram.”Western education is sinful. By Allah, I will sell them in the marketplace,” he said in the hour-long video.
While 53 of the girls have escaped, 276 remain in captivity and some of the girls have already been forced to marry their abductors and convert to Islam. According to the terrorists, 2 have died from snakebites and another 20 are ill.
The lax military action to rescue the girls has induced protests and outrage toward Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan , who is coming off as insensitive and careless. Sunday night Jonathan stated that his administration is “doing everything possible” to rescue the girls and that he has created a “presidential committee to work on a strategy for release.”
Each day that goes by more girls are being sold into human slavery and falling ill. How long will it take for our leaders to step in and rectify the situation?
Stand with the kidnapped girls of Nigeria. Tweet @BarackObama hashtag #BringBackOurGirls. Let him know that allowing each day to pass with no action is unacceptable. You can also raise awareness by retweeting UNICEF’s tweet below:
#BringBackOurGirls. We repeat call for immediate release of Nigerian school girls. RT to stand with #Nigeria! pic.twitter.com/tH7F3IywYW
— UNICEF (@UNICEF) May 5, 2014
Sources: The Associated Press, CNN, CBS News
