Terrorists staged a mass abduction in the African country of Nigeria two weeks ago. Were they targeting rival politicians or military members? Did they capture powerful men and women with machine guns and divergent convictions?

No. They abducted 234 young girls from school.

According to CNN, of the students abducted from the Government Girls Secondary School in the town of Chibok, about 190 are still missing.

The Islamic militant group Boko Haram has raided schools in the past, hoping to deter parents from giving their children a modern education. Keeping kids out of classrooms seems to be a trend with extremists. We could call it the Malala Effect, after the 15-year-old Pakistani girl who was shot by the Taliban for speaking out about girls’ education.

Students in Nigeria                 Lindsay Mgbor/Department for International Development
Students in Nigeria                 Lindsay Mgbor/Department for International Development
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Why are terrorists frightened of giving girls a book and a voice? Perhaps extremists have caught on to something NGOs have been preaching about for years: when you empower women and girls and give boys a well-rounded education, communities begin to change.

Let’s look at the facts.

According to the United Nations:

  • A study using data from 219 countries from 1970 to 2009 found that, for every one additional year of education for women of reproductive age, child mortality decreased by 9.5 percent. Between 1970 and 1990, the survival of 4.2 million children stemmed from women’s increased education.
  • Statistics show that women and girls reinvest 90 percent of their income in their families and communities.
  •  Girls who marry early often abandon formal education and become pregnant. Maternal deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth are an important component of mortality for girls aged 15–19 worldwide, accounting for 70,000 deaths each year (UNICEF, State of the World’s Children).
  • Girls who receive an education marry later, have fewer children, and are more likely to seek healthcare for themselves and their children.
  •  Nearly 93 million children are not in school
  • Almost half of these children are in Sub-Saharan Africa and a quarter of them are in Southern Asia.
  • Children are often forced to leave school due to the need to earn money to support their families. Girls are often forced into early marriage or bonded labor.
  • In many schools, rote learning is emphasized to the exclusion of problem solving, leadership and decision making skills.
MC2 William Parker
MC2 William Parker
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It seems the part-time anarchists huddled over their Tumblr and Reddit accounts, crying for insurrection and quoting V for Vendetta have nothing on this one little girl in a hijab who was determined to go to school.

The fiery renegades with their bloody uprisings and Molotov cocktails can’t compete with the millions of young boys and girls who risk their lives and freedom just sit in a classroom.

These are the true children of the revolution: girls and boys who will affect change not with weapons but words, calculators in place of cruelty, books instead of bombs.

Progress might take more time than a quick and dirty insurgency or be less dramatic than overthrowing a dictatorial regime, but it seems the kind of change that Malala and millions of other children are working toward is the type that can be sustained.

It seems right that terrorists are more frightened of kids with pens and pencils than of drones, tanks and soldiers. After all, extremists don’t fear death as much as the loss of their ideological principles: their ability to control through hatred and fear.

Girls and boys like Malala are challenging this dogma.

“I don't want to be thought of as the "girl who was shot by the Taliban" but the "girl who fought for education." This is the cause to which I want to devote my life,” Malala said in her award-winning book.

“One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world.”

Malala Yousafzai                                               Diogenes 013
Malala Yousafzai                                               Diogenes 013
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