Boko Haram and Chibok Schoolgirls Reflection by Licette Renteria

Boko Haram and Chibok Schoolgirls Reflection

By: Licette Renteria

Throughout the semester my blog group focused on the islamist militant group Boko Haram and the abduction of the 276 Chibok schoolgirls. In our first blog post we gave a brief history of the start of Boko Haram and why their beliefs caused them to abduct the schoolgirls, as well as do other anti-Western and Islamist extremism acts. In the first blog we also talked about the international implications of Boko Haram’s actions. Due to the easy access to the internet and other forms of communication Boko Haram is able to exchange ideas with other terrosorts groups, just like them, in different parts of the world. The ability to communicate worldwide with other militant islamist groups similar to Boko Haram allows them to easily associate and ally with each other. To conclude the first post we emphasized how we as a global community need to realize that the hatred and violence within groups like Boko Haram is a result of historical factors. It is important to realize that Boko Haram is a threat to the global community and to basic human rights and freedoms. We followed the first blog post with another post about the international and domestic response to the abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls. Many countries supported the Nigerian government and its fight to get the girls back, however this was mainly due to the #BringBackOurGirls movement, and other social media coverage. We also emphasized that even though international media coverage is important, countries should actually take the initiative and take action in helping with the rescue of the schoolgirls. The third blog post was about the setbacks that the women who were released, or escaped, from Boko Haram faced while trying to assimilate back into society. Many women who were captured by Boko Haram were perceived by some members of their community as supporters of the group, while others who were sexually assaulted or raped were seen as disgraces to their families. Since Nigeria is such a patriarchal society, this adds to how difficult it is for the Chibok school girls to reintegrate themselves into their society.

Most of the research my group and I found in order to write the posts were online sources. As a group we were able to divide up the different topics that we were each going to write about in the post. Also, we would create a single google document, for each of our posts, in which we would share the articles that we all found with each other. This enabled us to look at new and different sources that could help us write our section. It also helped the person who was doing the citations to have all the sources in one place. Working in a group definitely influenced our approach on how we would write the post, because we always tried to make sure that everyone in the group was doing something and that no one was not taking on more than she could. Being in a group made it easier to find the right information we needed about the different posts we wrote. 

Before the blog posts I new very minimal about Boko Haram and the abduction of the Chibok school girls. Like many I was aware of the #BringBackOurGirls movement, however I had never dived into any more research on the topic until doing the blog posts. Because of the posts I learned a lot about the start of the group Boko Haram, and furthered my understanding about how the actions of them, like abducting the school girls, has a lot more international effects and implications. The reason that Boko Haram is to be known is not just because they abducted the schoolgirls but also because of what they stand for– which is the rejection of women’s rights and human rights. Not only do they need to be stopped, but also other extremist terrorist groups like them. As well as learning about Boko Haram and the Chibok schoolgirls, I also learned how to work in a group. This was my first group assignment in college and it was interesting to see how well we would all work together. At first it started off a bit rough but over time we got more into the groove of things and we were able to work well together. I now know how important communication and dedication is when working in a group, and I will take these new insights into future group work that I do.