” Boko Haram ” the word Boko means ‘western’, ‘animist’, or anything that is non-Islamic, and the word Haram means ‘ Sin’ or ‘forbidden’. The Islamic terrorist group in Nigeria calls itself the ” Boko Haram fighters ” and believe that they are working for the will of God. They want to establish Sharia law as the only legal system in the country and want to create an Islamic Caliphate and to achieve this they have adopted the most inhumane and torturous way possible.
The book ” Stolen Girls ” by Wolfgang Bauer brings out horrifying stories of Boko Haram survivors which compels us to accept that we are living a privileged and luxurious life then these women who can’t even have an access to basic human rights. Women here are treated as objects or to be precise ” slaves ” to act as suicide bombers, held as hostages to fulfill their advantage or sex slaves to produce more and more children so that they can have more manpower to join the Boko Haram fighters. Young girls are abducted and forced to marry elderly men in the name of Allah’s will. They’re raped and physically abused and it’s considered to be normal because all women have to go through this and it’s a common thing. Where a human is denied basic human rights and dignity it’s stupidity to even consider that there will be a scope of education for these young girls in such a situation. Boko Haram denies their captives of even some water and food, where beating brutally is considered the right punishment as guided by God, where anyone who stands against this unjust practice is killed directly to expect that there will be peace someday is like hoping for the sun to rise in the midnight.
Boko Haram believes that all the other religions and Gods are not true. Only Islam is the right religion and everything else is false. This is the reason behind the destruction of the ethnic and cultural diversity of Nigeria. So many tribes and their beliefs are destroyed by Boko Haram.
There is no easy way to fight this evil. Any other organization which is established to fight this evil becomes eviler. These organizations often lead to the killing of innocent civilians more than terrorists. For instance, in one part of the book, it is mentioned that there was reckless killing by the military. They dropped firebombs on the Boko Haram camps but they were mostly occupied by the kidnapped women and children. There was one organization set up by the government under President Goodluck Jonathan to fight the Boko Haram terrorists. They ended up adding some goons into the force. Many men joined the force to fulfill their selfish motives, to gain power, and to receive bribes. They often killed innocent people without fair trials and then there was indirectly a new terrorist group formed which was directly funded by the government.
In the end, all the political parties work for their own interests and motives. There’s this greater evil in the country ” corruption ” which is causing higher damage than the Boko Haram itself. Because the money and the resources which are supposed to be employed to fight terrorists and save people are just used to make politician’s pockets fat.
Even the police and military are bought. They work for the politicians and the rich for ” extra bonuses”. The state of war and unrest is the best time for them to earn more.
Foreign financial aids often prove to be useless as the money is just wasted in corruption and never actually fulfills the intended cause. Military aid from the foreign countries also proves themselves to be useless because they often lead to mass killings of civilians in the name of terrorists and lead to a more human right violation.
In such a condition what hopes can we keep that there will be peace someday? That people would be able to choose their religion, way of living, and could get educated and indulge in the professions they want? Who will guarantee their basic human rights and is there even a scope of freedom for these survivors? For me only fear dominates the entire situation. It’s difficult to gather hope in such a tragedy.
The digital love 