-by Maddy Batt- Over one month ago, over 230 hundred Nigerian girls were kidnapped from their school by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram, which opposes the education of women. The tragedy spawned a global social media campaign–Bring Back Our Girls–supporting their return, and, naturally, Winsor girls contributed their own voices to the fight.

Amnesty International, Girls of the World, and Current Events worked together to bring the campaign to Winsor. The issue is of particular relevance to our community, given its underlying theme: education for girls. Bring Back Our Girls is not only about the safe return of these students, but also about the rights of female students around the world. Ellie Cornell, ’15, head of Girls of the World, says that the club is “becoming increasingly aware of the injustice that is girls’ inability to get an education equal to a man’s, and we are outraged. I think one of the reasons Girls of the World wanted to take action was that this group could’ve targeted Winsor if given the chance.” She adds, “We cannot remain inactive in our classrooms here while girls in Nigeria have to wait in fear in theirs.”

Winsor girls responded to this injustice in force by wearing red and posing with signs to show their support for the campaign. But, Cornell says, we can continue to fight by “writing letters to the US and Nigerian Government, signing petitions, and raising awareness.” Though she admits that “it is easy to overlook the privileges we have and even easier to distance ourselves from tragedies that we could not imagine enduring,” we must do the opposite. We must fight for girls everywhere, especially those who do not have the rights we take for granted.