Some Straight Talk From FLOTUS

As part of her Let Girls Learn initiative, Michelle Obama will travel to the Middle East to speak at a global conference on education in Qatar. She previewed what she's going to talk about in an article in the Atlantic - and she's not pulling any punches. FLOTUS begins by acknowledging the importance of things like scholarships, transportation, etc. But then she gets down to the heart of the matter when it comes to the challenges facing girls.

But while these investments are absolutely necessary to solve our girls’ education problem, they are simply not sufficient. Scholarships, bathrooms, and safe transportation will only go so far if societies still view menstruation as shameful and shun menstruating girls. Or if they fail to punish rapists and reject survivors of rape as “damaged goods.” Or if they provide few opportunities for women to join the workforce and support their families, so that it’s simply not financially viable for parents struggling with poverty to send their daughters to school.

In other words, we cannot address our girls’ education crisis until we address the broader cultural beliefs and practices that can help cause and perpetuate this crisis. And that is precisely the message I intend to deliver this week when I travel to the Middle East...I’ll be urging countries around the world to both make new investments in girls’ education and challenge laws and practices that silence, demean, and brutalize women—from female genital mutilation and cutting, to forced child marriage, to laws that allow marital rape and disadvantage women in the workplace.

While we've made strides on these cultural issues here in the United States (as the First Lady acknowledges), it was my experience growing up that the shame of silence around things like menstruation made it deeply difficult to traverse the challenges they represent to girls. So while I'm sure that speaking so openly about them will ignite backlash in certain quarters, the fact that Michelle Obama is willing to do so is a powerful step in the right direction.

Read More http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2015/11/some-straight-talk-from-flotus.html

I was going to highlight a few parts, yet I can't I would have highlighted it all. Thank you Flotus, you are a treasure. Tell it.