A decade after the kidnapping of the Chibok girls in Nigeria, what has the #BringBackOurGirls movement achieved?

Parents of Chibok schoolgirls who were kidnapped in 2014 by Islamic extremists attend a 10th anniversary event of the abduction in Lagos, Nigeria, on April 4, 2024.& (AP Photo/Mansur Ibrahim ) by Temitope Oriola, University of Alberta In April 2014, the terrorist organization Boko Haram kidnapped 276 high school girls in Chibok, a town in northeast Nigeria. About 57 of the girls managed to escape on the night of their capture. Boko Haram had demonstrated its intentions regarding the education of girls and young women prior to the mass kidnapping — two months before the Chibok kidnapping, Boko Haram attacked a high school in a nearby state, Yobe. The terrorists separated the students by gender, “shot or burned to death” 59 boys and told the girls to “go away and get married and to abandon their education.” The kidnapping of the Chibok girls reflected Boko Haram’s attitude towards not only education and culture, but also the place and role of women in society. A new trajectory The mothers of the 219 kidnapped girls protested, but little attention was generated due to their low socioeconomic status, degree of organization and location. Within three weeks, other more powerful women intervened to advocate...