Alicia Keys Organizes 'Bring Back Our Girls' Protest In NYC

by Chelsea ReganOctober 15, 2014, 12:00 amNews >

Alicia Keys, alongside her husband Swiss Beatz, organized a "Bring Back Our Girls" protest in New York City for the 219 Nigerian schoolgirls that were kidnapped by Boko Haram militants in Nigeria.

Alicia Keys Protest

Keys held the protest outside the consulate general of Nigeria Wednesday, one day after the six-month mark for when the 200-plus Nigerian girls were kidnapped back in April. Keys and Beatz were accompanied by about 30 others who held up signs that read "Bring Back 219" and "We Are Here". Together the group chanted, "Bring back our girls," and “When do we want them? Now! Now! Alive!”

“Today is my son’s birthday and it is also making me stand in solidarity with all the mothers of the Chibok girls who have been abducted for six months and are still missing. And it is just outrageous that that’s going on,” Keys said during the protest, according to PageSix.

“Some people have even told me they’ve heard things about ‘there’s been progress,’ but there hasn’t been progress because the girls aren’t back,” Keys added. “So I think that we get mixed information. We don’t know, so we just have to keep being made aware of what’s happening.”

Keys has been promoting her protest and advocating for the cause of the kidnapped school girls on social media as well. "On my lil guys birthday I stand with the mothers of Chibok!" she wrote in one Twitter post, referring to her four-year-old son Egypt. In another she called people to action to sign a petition.

Chargement

It’s my son's birthday today which makes me feel even more in solidarity with the parents of the Chibok girls in Nigeria who were abducted 6 months ago today by Boko Haram. They are still missing!!! At the moment of this rally those parents were marching on the Presidential Palace in Abuja to call on Goodluck Jonathan to pay attention to what can be done to free those girls from a situation too horrible to imagine. It’s difficult and it won’t be easy but we have to keep the pressure on because these girls represent all the girls being kept from an education, they represent all girls who are looked upon as property and they represent rape and violence against women as a weapon of war all over the world! The @WeAreHereMovement is about direct action! Sign your name to join the movement and sign the petition to bring back our girls!! #BringBackOurGirlsNOW #weareheremovement Sign here: (link in bio)

Afficher sur Instagram

Back in May, Keys was far from the only celebrity to take on raising awareness for the kidnapped girls. The #BringBackOurGirls social media campaign picked up considerable steam after First Lady Michelle Obama participated. Over the next several days, Reese Witherspoon, Sean Penn, Ashton Kutcher, Bradley Cooper, Justin Timberlake, Anne Hathaway, Cara Delevingne, Iman and Anthony Kiedis took to social media for the cause.