Everyday Erinyes

Stuff does happen which seems to me to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with it. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as "unceasing," "grudging," and "vengeful destruction."

To make a long story short, this situation appears to me to be one where the victims have been released from the custody of the actual vengeance-deserving criminals, but are now, though innocent, still being victimized by the ignorant.  I think maybe you can put on your Eumenides panties* and deal with this.

It was the hashtag that turned the spotlight on the crisis of Nigerian girls and women being abducted by Boko Haram: #BringBackOurGirls. But now that government and humanitarian efforts are resulting in some women being rescued from the Islamic militant group and returned to their homes, it seems not all Nigerians are welcoming them with open arms.

According to a joint report released Tuesday by UNICEF and human rights group International Alert, many women and teen girls who were once held by Boko Haram are being rejected by their families and communities. People treat the former captives with mistrust over fears the women have become radicalized supporters of the extremists. But the suspicious behavior of family members tends to become explicit persecution if the former captives bore children after being sexually assaulted by members of Boko Haram.

The babies may be innocent, but they are seen by locals as being infected with “bad blood” from their rapist Boko Haram fathers, according to the report. “There is a belief that, like their fathers, the children will inevitably do what hyenas do and ‘eat’ the innocent dogs around them,” wrote the report’s authors.

The girls and women who have been rescued don't really include many, if any, of the 300 schoolgirls abducted from Chibok almost two years ago, and who were only 300 of over 2,000 women and girls abducted since 2012.  My source doesn't say how many have been rescued – only that those who have, rejected by their families and neighbors, are being pushed into poverty, prostitution, homelessness, and the children into abandonment, discrimination, and violence..

The groups working on getting additional humanitarian aid towards the survival of these innocents appear to be UNICEF and International Alert.  Both of course accept donations; neither, as far as I can find, has a system to earmark donations for any particular project. 

By the way – when you finish helping these poor girls find justice – I don't think anyone reading this will be unhappy if you decide to scrap the Eumenides panties and go after Boko Haram.

* According to Aeschylus, Athena, with a combination of bribes and threats, convinced the  Erinyes to direct their focus away from just vengeance and in the direction of simple justice, including the protection of the innocent.  At that time they received the new collective name of "Eumenides" – kindly or merciful ones.  My allusion to "big girl panties" was intended to tap into the "coming of age" implications of this myth.

The Furies and I will be back.