Malala Yousafzai In Nigeria For ‘Bring Back Our Girls’

Malala Yousafzai arrived in Abuja, Nigeria on her 17th birthday to campaign for the plight of more than 250 young girls kidnapped by the terrorist group Boko Haram more than three months ago. Yousafzai, who survived an assassination attempt in her home country of Pakistan, made the trip to support the “Bring Back Our Girls” movement.

The teen activist told ABC News her one birthday wish was “Bring back our girls, now and alive.” Parents of the missing girls made a 20-hour journey through dangerous territory to meet with the Pakistani teen who was shot by the Taliban for wanting to attend school.

The meeting was emotional, and 11 fathers and one mother shared their frustration and grief that their daughters still have not been found. Some of them described going into the forest where their daughters were taken to rescue them, but being told to turn back because they may not return alive.

Hadiza Usman of the Bring Back Our Girls movement stated, “All they are asking for is for the government to search for their daughters. They feel neglected and abandoned.”

Malala Yousafzai also met with some of the schoolgirls who managed to escape Boko Haram and told them she would take their messages to President Goodluck Jonathan during their meeting Monday, according to CNN. She told them, “Speak from the core of your heart, and I want to send your message to the President.”

Nigerians and supporters of the girls have accused the government of not acting swiftly or efficiently enough to protect the girls. They were seized in the middle of the night. However, the military has defended its response, saying its soldiers have to enforce a state of emergency across Borno state, where the girls were kidnapped from.

Malala Yousafzai’s father traveled to Nigeria with her, where he shed tears with the parents of the missing girls. Ziauddin Yousafzai recalled his own daughter’s brush with death, telling the parents, “When she was shot, her mother said it would have been worse if they had kidnapped her. But there is hope. We must be hopeful.”

Malala added of her decision to support Bring Back Our Girls, “When I was hearing the story of the girls being kidnapped on Twitter, it was everywhere, but I did not really know what the parents would be feeling. And then I came here and I met the parents and all of them crying. And it just made me cry and my father was crying as well.”

While others have criticized the president for a lack of action in the case of the missing girls, the Pakistani teen was hopeful that her voice would have an impact. She explained that she hopes “it will reach to the President and he will take action.”

Malala Yousafzai added that she also had a message for Boko Haram, telling them to think of their own sisters and “understand that what they are doing is badly impacting, badly affecting the name of Islam.”

[Image by Claude Truong-Ngoc]