On Tuesday, while her husband addressed the UN General Assembly in New York City, First Lady Michelle Obama spoke to the United Nations Global Education Initiative.
Barack chose to defend Islam and smack around Israel. He also took time to discuss racism in the United States. Likewise, Michelle Obama attacked the plight of women in America and its “harmful cultural norms.”
US President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama disembark from Air Force One as they arrive in New York after he ditched his coffee cup. (Malay Mail)
Via The White House website:
None of us in this room would ever dream of accepting that kind of life for our daughters or granddaughters. So why would we accept this for any girl in our country, or any girl on this planet?
To answer this question, all of us -– men and women here in this room and around the world –- we must do some serious self-reflection. We must look inside ourselves and ask, do we truly value women as equals, or do we see them as merely second-class citizens? We must look around at our societies and ask, are we clinging to laws and traditions that serve only to oppress and exclude, or are we working to become more equal, more free?
These are the very questions we are asking ourselves every day here in the United States. Because while we’ve made tremendous progress in areas like college graduation rates and workforce participation, women here are still woefully underrepresented in our government and in the senior ranks of our corporations.
We still struggle with violence against women and harmful cultural norms that tell women how they are expected to look and act. And we still have plenty of work to do here in America to provide a quality education and opportunity for girls and boys, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds. But as we consider all the challenges we face in our countries and in countries across the globe, we must also reflect on the tremendous progress we’ve made.
Meanwhile a female human rights activist was just tortured and murdered by ISIS in Iraq this week.
