WASHINGTON — First lady Michelle Obama said American women need to do more to help girls in African and Middle Eastern countries get an education.
“We would never accept a life of dependence and abuse for our girls,” Obama said during her speech at a lunch sponsored MORE magazine. “We would never allow their bodies to be violated or for their potential to be squandered. We have to ask ourselves why would we accept this fate for any girl on this planet?”
Obama, who was a guest editor for the most recent issue of the magazine, called on the MORE audience, women of “style and substance” according to the magazine, to get involved.
“These girls are willing to risk their safety, even their lives to get an education,” she said. “So the least we can do is make sure they have a school to attend.”
Vivian Onano, a 24-year-old women’s advocate from Kenya, said programs that invest in girls’ education are the only way to end the cycle of poverty in countries like hers.
“It makes me so sad that so many other girls who are equally as smart, who are equally talented don’t have the same opportunity,” said Onano.
The Obama administration, the United States Agency for International Development and the Peace Corps are partnering to implement the initiative.
In Guinea and Jordan more than 1.5 times as many primary aged girls were out of school than their male counterparts in 2012, according to data from the UNESCO Institute of Statistics. In Pakistan, another country Obama’s program targets, roughly 740,000 fewer girls of primary school age were in school in 2013 than boys of the same age, according to the UNESCO data.
Lesley Jane Seymour, MORE editor-in-chief, said that having Obama speak to the magazine’s educated readership might help move the program forward.
“I think there are sparks going off everywhere in the room, which is great,” Seymour said.
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