US first lady urges Spanish women to promote girls’ learning

US First Lady Michelle Obama arrives at Spanish capital to promote education of girls.

Malia Obama looked stunning as she showed off a white and baby blue Burberry Prorsum herringbone mini as she touched down in Spain along with her sister Sasha and mother Michelle Obama.

Addressing about 600 young women, many of them students, Obama shared stories from visits to Liberia and Morocco and highlighted the struggle many girls there faced to go to school.

Obama wrote in a CNN op-ed Friday that often adolescent girls miss out on schooling in Morocco because of geographic barriers that force unsafe commutes or cultural norms that reinforce the belief that females are unworthy of an education. HM King Mohammed VI offered, Tuesday in Marrakech, an Iftar in honor of the First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, in the presence of Princesses Lalla Salma, Lalla Meryem, Lalla Asmaa and Lalla Hasnaa.

On Wednesday Obama landed in Madrid for the last leg of her worldwide Let Girls Learn trip and spoke with young women about how they can help undereducated women throughout the globe achieve their dreams. She said she had come to Spain in the hope of inspiring women and girls here to help fight for change.

Obama kicked off the tour in Liberia, one of the world’s most destitute countries.

The USAID on its part announced a new $400,000 investment in a local NGO to establish five new girls’ dorms (known as “Dar Talibas”) to provide housing and support for rural girls to continue their education, while the White House announced that Morocco will become, in the coming months, Peace Corps’ 36th Let Girls Learn country.

She said: “I think today, we are all clear that the education of girls transforms, protects and is productive”.

And the problem isn’t just a lack of funding: it’s the way girls are valued for their bodies instead of their minds.

“Maybe you know what I’m talking about – how when a father gets home from a long day of work and changes a diaper, he’s practically considered a hero”, she said.