Academy Award-winner Anne Hathaway joined a rally in Los Angeles last week to protest against Boko Haram's kidnapping of more than 300 schoolgirls in Chibok. Grabbing a megaphone, Hathaway passionately claimed that the kidnapped girls represent the 5% of Nigerian girls able to seek out an education.
Anne Hathaway Leads #BringBackOurGirls Protest in Los Angelespic.twitter.com/LQ7nWELJwj
— Fadi Darwish (@amadeuslebanon) May 11, 2014
But she's wrong: While gender inequality is certainly a problem in Nigeria, it is absurd to suggest that only 5% of girls in Nigeria receive education. According to the World Bank, female literacy for Nigerian girls aged 15–24 is at 65%.
Hathaway is one of the many Hollywood stars and other western voices that have helped paint the tragic story of Boko Haram's kidnapping as a story about gender, perpetrated by a group that targets young girls in particular. But anyone with any understanding of Boko Haram would know that they certainly don't spare men or boys. The exact number of male student casualties is unknown, but the number is in the hundreds. Boko Haram has also killed a total of 171 teachers in Borno and Yobe states.
Image Credit: AP. A candlelight vigil for the missing schoolgirls.
The framing of Boko Haram's insurgency as one that is part of a war on girls and women casts Boko Haram as the Taliban and the missing schoolgirls as Pakistani education advocate Malala Yousafzai. This story has been reinforced by Fox Newsand, predictably, by pundits like Ayaan Hirsi Ali. But this frustrating narrative has been reinforced by the well-intentioned too.
Last week, Jon Stewart delivered a scathing reproach to Boko Haram during anepisode of The Daily Show, saying that compared to a teenager who knows that her desire for an education could get her dragged into a snake-infested jungle to be sold as a bride by some demented, stick-chewing cartoon villain, but still gets up and goes to class every day fully aware of that danger, compared to their courage, I'd say Boko Haram is a bunch of little girls — but you know what, you don't deserve that compliment."
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