Returning home is a mixed blessing for victims of Boko Haram

[WhiteTara]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/returning-home-mixed-blessing-victims-boko-haram-064731885--politics.html?nhp=1

YOLA, Nigeria (AP) — "Bring Back Our Girls," say the placards in the park and the tweets read around the world. But for thousands of girls and women who've escaped Boko Haram's clutches, the message they've sometimes encountered at homecomings has been "Stay Away."

As U.S.-backed African governments make military advances against the Islamic extremist group and rescue more and more of the kidnapped and enslaved, aid groups and activists say a new challenge is mounting: rehabilitation.

Perhaps no group is as stigmatized as those abducted, raped, forcibly married or otherwise mistreated by the militants. Sometimes they are called "Boko Haram wives" or even "epidemics" in their native communities, and few organized services are available for their care. Sometimes even fewer people are willing to embrace them as survivors.

"No one helped me, just one person who got me these clothes," said Maria Saidu, a 32-year-old woman who was held by Boko Haram for more than a year before escaping three months ago.

Finishing up a weeklong tour of the Boko Haram-affected countries of West Africa, Samantha Power, America's U.N. envoy, highlighted efforts to assist the victims of Boko Haram.

[annabanana]

1. The sad fact is, in many societies..

The fate of these poor girls and women are laid directly at their own feet. They are worse than "damaged goods". What happened to them brings "shame" on the men in their families.

[Warpy]

2. Some of them will undoubtedly go back to the men they were forced to marry

because their own people are so stupidly unclear on the concept of RAPE.

There is just no way for them to win in this world.

[Hortensis]

3. Some families take them back gladly, others

not so much, and some reject. And if they return with a child fathered by a terrorist, that compounds the problem. Apparently there's a lot of aid available to help those who need help, though. Seemingly a skill and an income can often do wonders for marriageability.

There's a story out there that Boko Haram is offering to return the other perhaps 219 girls kidnapped from the boarding school in return for a very sizable ransom.