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24020075 Muryum Palekar

Surviving Boko Haram: From One Nightmare to Another


The literal meaning of Boko Haram is ‘Western education is a sin’. Boko Haram is a militant Islamist group, operating in Nigeria. It rejects Western culture and secular education and calls for Islamic rule. In April 2004, Boko Haram abducted 276 Chibok girls from a school, of which around 100 were freed after negotiations, some managed to escape, while 112 of them remain hostage to this day.

"I don't see anything changing ... we keep demanding accountability and we're not seeing it. Schools cannot be safe when you allow insurgents, when you allow terrorists to keep shifting the goalposts," Manasseh, the media and publicity head of the Chibok community stated in an interview.

Over the years, more than 1000 children have been abducted by Boko Haram in Nigeria. Of the girls who managed to escape, most are forced to live in camps as they are no longer accepted by their families and are referred to as “Boko Haram women”. Some of these women also have children with men of Boko Haram, another reason why their families refuse to accept them back. The women in these camps live in poor economic conditions, where they struggle to make ends meet.

Regarding their acceptance back in society, Fatima, a woman who escaped Boko Haram and currently lives in a camp said,

"If we were welcomes back with open arms, and if they showed us they understood our pain, then one day we could leave this all in the past."

The silver lining for most of these women is that their children are gaining education in schools that are situated in these camps. They see education as an act of revenge against Boko Haram. They place emphasis on education as they fear that not educating their children makes them an easy target for recruitment into Boko Haram.




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7 Comments


This was a very interesting read, thank you for shedding light on to it. This group is not only curtailing the process of education directly, but also indirectly by a reduction in household incomes too.


I have a few questions. Is this gender-blind? Since the abductions of school girls seems to suggest otherwise. If otherwise, where is this stemming from?

Is Boko Haram a declared FTO? If yes, then what is preventing the Nigerian government to counter it? Furthermore, does it have ties to Al-Qaeda or any other international jihadist group (since some of its dealings are very similar to those of the Taliban).

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laibarizwanmehr
Jul 04, 2022

A very interesting read Muryum! I couldn't help but notice the similarities between Boko Haram and the Taliban in Afghanistan as the main reason they claim to ban girls' education is due to the western style of education/curriculum and the absence of male/female segregation in schools. They claim to only let girls go to school once these 'issues' are resolved. But what deeply disturbs me is how in both these cases, it is only the female population that has to bear the brunt of these demands. Only the female population who is abducted or forced to stay at home while the boys continue about their lives even though if looked at from their perspective, the religious responsibility falls equally o…

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I do agree with you, Laiba. Women, in most cases, have to face the brunt of these issues. Just to clarify, these 'Boko Haram women' are girls who have escaped the Boko Haram after they were abducted by them. So these women do not share Boko Haram's ideology on Western education. To answer the question, the schools in these education camps are very progressive, with some of them even teaching in co-education. They also place great emphasis on sports with both boys and girls playing games like football together so it is really inspirational to see the efforts made by people of Nigeria to provide education to their children.

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24020135
Jul 02, 2022

Very interesting blog! Thankyou for highlighting this topic. I was not aware of this before but I believe that the Boko Haram group is mainly against all the Western practices, education etc. And for this reason, they have considered getting an education is Western culture too. Moreover, there must also be policies and regulations about the curriculum and the education that is being given in this area. Because it is very likely that haterd against Westerners is being instilled in the students. Lastly, the point where they are still getting education as a fight against Boko Haram is very interesting. This example also coincides with the example of pre-partion India where some of the Muslims boycotted education but Sir Syed…

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Thank you for including that anecdote, the sentiment behind it is definitely similar to the one expressed by the women I mentioned in the blog.

As for the policies you're talking about, while education institutions in Nigeria do not instill hate against the West, there have been accounts of the girls who were abducted by Boko Haram who mention that they were forced to convert to Islam (the girls were Christian) and marry men of Boko Haram. They were also forced to recite sacred Islamic texts and were punished severely if they were seen practicing their religion.

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Why is it that the Boko Haram group is so adamantly against the concept of western education? Why is it that they use religion as a claim to negate literacy? Moreover, what guarantee is there that the reestablishment of educational facilities within these escapee camps will not be subject to future Boko Haram violence? Is there no means of safeguards or attempts of protection on society's behalf? Is there a resigned communal acceptance of this lifestyle?

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Thank you for your comment; you have raised some important questions. As for Boko Haram being against the concept of Western education, they still associate it with the efforts made by evangelical Christians to convert Muslims to Christianity and believe that it's system of colonial social organization as, according to them, Western secular education led to the downfall of early Islamic jihadist states. As for the security in these camps, while they can not ensure complete security, there is a security screening by the military at the entrance of these camps. However, this too has turned out to be an issue for the civilians as there have been instances of innocent men of “fighting age” being detained on occasions and…

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