In the middle of the night on April 14, 2014, the Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram broke into the hostels where 276 schoolgirls slept in the town of Chibok in Northeast Nigeria. Corralled into trucks, the girls were held by gunpoint and abducted into the night. Boko Haram's leader, Abubakar Shekau, later claimed that under Sharia law the girls should not have been at the school learning to read and write, but rather that they should already be married since, according to him, girls as young as nine are suitable for marriage.
An act of violence and major atrocity against basic human security, the kidnapping of the Nigerian girls also represents one of the many backlashes around the world against girls' right to education. As an international photographer who has dedicated the latter part of my career to documenting the basic lack of human rights that women face in many parts of the world, I am deeply troubled by the unconscionable trauma endured by these girls and the millions more just like them who are punished, simply for wanting to go to school.
I am also troubled by the impact social media may have on our attention-span when it comes to attending to human rights violations that cannot be forgotten. In response to the Boko Haram kidnappings, our social-media streams tweeted and posted #BringBackOurGirls, but within a few weeks, the trend piqued and washed away like a wave into the vast sea of never-ending headlines. There has not been sufficient international intervention to help rescue these girls. Since then, more girls have been abducted, simply for going to school or leaving their homes, yet these incidents haven't been widely reported and the trending conversation around the #BringBackOurGirls campaign has largely died out.
These women and girls deserve more of our attention than the time it takes to repost a headline on Facebook. Their rights continue to be violated even as our attention has drifted onto the next big trend.
Through portrait photography, I try to bring these girls and their stories to the forefront of world consciousness. My forthcoming photo book, Faces of Courage: Intimate Portraits of Women on the Edge (currently live on Kickstarter- please check out the project here), tells the stories of women and girls in both their powerlessness in the face of human- rights violations, and their unshakeable dignity and hope for a better future. The portraits you see here each represent an individual story and struggle in a girl's fight for something we too often take for granted here in the US: education.
An enthusiastic 4th grader in a school in one of the slums in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. Her teacher was from the community and trained by FHI360.
An hour outside of Kaduna, Nigeria, the Bixby Girl Child Education Project works to improve access to education for girls in rural areas. The students’ attention was complete and unwavering as they were soaking up each and every word that was read aloud.
In Malaysia, this young girl studies from home.
In Rajasthan, Educate Girls India works to keep girls in school and prevent child marriage.
Two Maasai girls in a very pastoral, remote region in southern Kenya sit outside their home doing their homework. Their educational program is supported by AJWS.
In Rajasthan, India, a motivated student from the Educate Girls program. The intensity of her concentration clearly shows her eagerness to learn.
In rural Uttar Pradesh, Action India initiated a school-enrollment campaign focused on girls’ education.
WomensTrust in Pokuase, Ghana, has a scholarship program that supports more than one hundred bright young girls.
In Rajasthan, Educate Girls India works in very remote, rural areas where there are few schools, to ensure girls receive an education and avoid child marriage
In Kolkata, India, this young girl lives in an orphanage, which has it’s own school.
In Kano, Nigeria, this young student is in a school funded by a grant from the Packard Foundation; the mothers of the girls sell their handcrafts to support the school.
In Rajasthan, India where many girls become child brides, a young woman pictured here with her mother, receives her mother’s support and encouragement to do well in her studies and not get married until she is ready.
This girl in Pokuase, Ghana is on a scholarship to attend school from WomensTrust with more than one hundred other girls.
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