Q Life Magazine Q Magazine (US) December 2015 | Page 22
| Issue 1
Michelle Obama at
WISE: The World
Must Let Girls Learn
“Solving our girls’ education crisis is definitely about resources, but it is also about attitudes and
beliefs… We cannot address [the crisis] until we address the cultural norms and practices that
devalue women’s intelligence, that silence their voices, that limit their ambitions … these changes
need to happen at every level of our societies – in parliaments, and boardrooms, and courtrooms,
but also in homes and in schools in big cities and remote villages across the globe.”
T
his is the message that First Lady Michelle Obama carried with her
as she embarked on a visit to the Middle East in November 2015.
She travelled to focus global attention on women’s education and to highlight
a new initiative, Let Girls Learn, which she and her husband, President
Barack Obama, launched earlier in the year.
Let Girls Learn is a U.S. government-wide program to help girls around
the world gain access to education. To promote it, Mrs. Obama is visiting
countries across the globe to encourage them to step up their efforts to
educate and empower young women. Everywhere she goes, she is telling
the story of her own battle to get a good education and of women’s ongoing
struggle for equal opportunities in the United States, as well as the stories
of young women everywhere who have had to overcome high hurdles
to secure the schooling they deserve.
In Doha, Qatar, Mrs. Obama delivered a speech at the 2015 World
Innovation Summit for Education (WISE), the world’s leading international
education event.
Mrs. Obama praised Her Highness Sheikha Moza, Chairperson of Qatar
Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development and
22