Muslim Men Checking E-Bay For Kidnapped Nigerian Schoolgirls

The school from which the girls were kidnapped, a place that did not equip them with the skills potential husbands are seeking.

Bamako, Mali, May 12 – With virgin brides at a premium in this bustling region, many Muslim men realized that the abduction by Islamic militants of 276 schoolgirls in Nigeria presented a rare opportunity to obtain a pristine new bride, and have been scouring the internet and other sources in hopes of obtaining one or more of the schoolgirls to marry.

Boko Haram militants abducted hundreds of girls in mid-April during an attack on a school in Chibok, Nigeria; a leader of the Islamist militia announced that his group intended to sell the girls into slavery or as wives, effectively synonymous fates. While intelligence agencies and other governmental institutions try to locate the captives in order to free them, the men of Mali, Niger, Chad, Guinea, and Niger have been conducting equally desperate searches to secure a good deal on the same merchandise.

Most of the population of the region earns less than 600 West African CFA francs (about $1.25) per day, potentially putting men of means at a significant advantage in the competition for a Chibok child bride. However, many local experts expect the price of a schoolgirl to remain within the reach of even the middle class, as the militia is likely to be in a hurry to take the contraband off its hands while being pursued by soldiers and foreign agents.

Additionally, many of the girls are approaching the age of 18, and their market appeal will fade once they reach adulthood, and the skills and attitudes the girls picked up while being educated may make them unappealing to men accustomed to seeing their women as illiterate chattel.

That military effort perhaps accounts for the frustration of potential husbands surfing auction sites on the web in the meantime, as the logistics of transporting, concealing, feeding, and maintaining the girls in marketable condition precludes an organized process of properly uploading images, prices, and other data to E-Bay. “It’s a serious blow to an E-Bay vendor’s reputation to be unable to provide basic information or guarantees, so it’s no wonder the people who want to sell the girls are hesitant just to do it haphazardly,” says Lagos, Nigeria-based internet commerce consultant Ephebo Philya. “I would imagine they’re reluctant to put any single unit up for sale until they have the breathing room and time to properly photograph and describe each one.” He said the militants would need to include the age, physical dimensions, and other specifics of the merchandise, but that the same photograph of a burqa-clad child would probably be used for each unit, as Boko Haram considers the girls essentially interchangeable.