(Wikimedia Commons)

Instead, armed terrorists broke into the school dormitories that night. They kidnapped more than 200 students, loading them into trucks bound for the jungle. Today, after weeks without news, relatives said they heard from members of a forest community close to where the terrorists took the girls. They reported that their daughters and sisters were most likely sold as brides to Islamist militants: for $12.

Unfortunately, this is another case of how education, especially for girls, becomes a target in terrorists’ fight for control.

The kidnappers, who belong to a group called Boko Haram, (meaning “Western education is a sin”), claims that it threatens the traditions of northern Nigeria’s centuries-old Islamic society.

The Taliban too have attacked schools. In 2009, they planted explosives in over 800 schools in the Pakistan region. A Taliban hit man also shot and killed a female education advocate, Malala Yousafzai, in 2012. She was 15 years old.  

These groups claim that they are protecting religious principles and fighting Western decadence, but a state that is able to provide education is on the path to stability. This would then make it harder for terrorists to remain in power.

Boko Haram thrives in places where civil society is failing or not present at all. In these areas, education for anyone is a threat: it provides girls with the influence and perspective they lack in this environment and it gives boys a chance for a future outside the terrorist organization. 

Reach Executive Producer Anne Artley here