I can’t imagine being in a parent in that room, onlooking a video screen which depicts my daughter along with more than 250 others Nigerian young ladies whom bear statuette grim looks on their faces. The heads of the daughters are adorned in morbid grey scarves that mirror the bleakness of the situation. These parents feel happiness to have visual proof that their daughter is alive, yet bear heavy hearts at the realization that their daughter, who a month ago was in school finishing exams, is now a prisoner to the terroist group Boko Haram.
Nor could I imagine being one of the young students who managed to escape by jumping from the slowed vehicle or by disappearing from camps when no one was looking and running through the brush in an unknown direction. The thought in their head being, “I’d rather die trying to escape than live the fate that is coming to those who stay.” They are now asked to watch the videos and identify the classmates who were once happily alongside them planning their future, wondering with uncertainty if they will ever get free. These students are physically unbound but will mentally carry the anguish of knowing that that could have been them.
Without a doubt, I could not imagine being one of the more than 200 girls told by what appeared to be militant men that if they didn’t come with them they would die. The ones that were told that they would never see their school again. They did not escape, and were taken from their way of life and our now being forced to live and repeat a religion foreign from their own. The extent of abuse going on in the camps is unknown to the public of their parents,but is nonetheless a nightmare that keeps reliving itself in their heads.
No I could not imagine, but yet I still sympathize with all parties and offer a prayer that this situations will be resolved soon. That all involved from every side will find peace from knowing that it is all over and move toward a life of some type of normalcy again. Please #bringbackourgirls.
*These scenarios were based a article from the New York Times: Tales of Escapees in Nigeria add to Worries about Other Kidnapped Girls
Fearless Expressioner 