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Michelle Obama asks women to support girls' education abroad

Emily Hoerner
Medill News Service
First Lady Michelle Obama touted her "Let Girls Learn" initiative at a MORE magazine luncheon June 28 in Washington, D.C.

WASHINGTON — First Lady Michelle Obama said Monday 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 by 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 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."

Obama urged the audience to support her "Let Girls Learn" initiative, a partnership between the Peace Corps and the U.S. Agency for International Development to help girls in poor countries stay in school.

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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.

In Guinea and Jordan, primary-school-aged aged girls were out of school at a rate 1.5 times higher than their male counterparts in 2012, according to data from UNESCO. 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.

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