Hildegarde Naughton (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I join colleagues in strongly supporting this motion. The leader of Boko Haram announced more than a year ago that he intended to kidnap girls into slavery or forced marriage as part of his plan for forced radical Islam. No attention was paid by either the Nigerian Government or the wider international community. Human Rights Watch estimated that 25 young girls had already been kidnapped this year, but it took the kidnapping of 276 young girls and enormous international pressure for the Nigerian Government to lift a finger. We might criticise this, but the fact is that most of northern Nigeria is controlled by Boko Haram, which uses religion as a cover to commit acts of terror. Its members are terrorists, plain and simple, and it is clear that the Nigerian Government does not control vast swathes of its country and needs international assistance.
Although I stated last week that Boko Haram was targeting young girls and their forced marriage as a means to control and subjugate them, I should clarify that it has no respect for young boys either. It murders them and uses boys as young as 12 years old as child soldiers. It has no respect for life whatsoever. An educated female population is a challenge to these people, so they fear it. Restricting or eliminating the right of young girls to an education is an attack on the women of tomorrow. It makes their poverty all the more likely and reduces the population to ignorance, with a greater threat of subjugation.
Boko Haram's version of Islam is not supported by the world's Muslims. The World Health Organization's Amman declaration of 1996 cited with strong authority Islamic laws and traditions that supported the right to education for girls and boys as well as the rights to earn a living and participate in public life. Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager shot by the Taliban for promoting education for girls, called on world leaders to provide free, compulsory schooling for every child. She called for a global struggle against illiteracy, poverty and terrorism. She stated:

Let us pick up our books and our pens. They are our most powerful weapons. One child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world. Education is the only solution.

We would do well to remember her words.