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