Taking over the president's weekly radio and Internet address on the eve of the American holiday for honoring mothers, the first lady said that, like millions of people around the world, she and President Barack Obama are 'outraged and heartbroken' over the April 15 abduction of the girls from their dormitory.
'In these girls, Barack and I see our own daughters,' Mrs. Obama said, referring to Malia, 15, and Sasha, 12. 'We see their hopes, their dreams and we can only imagine the anguish their parents are feeling right now.'
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Symbolism: Mrs. Obama will vent her outrage at the Nigerian kidnappings during the president's radio address on Saturday
Global protests: Demonstrators yelled Friday in
London, showing a play on words that reverses the meaning of Boko Haram
-- 'Western education is permitted; Terror is sinful,' it reads
What
happened in Nigeria is not an isolated incident, the first lady said,
but is 'a story we see every day as girls around the world risk their
lives to pursue their ambitions.'
Mrs.
Obama mentioned the case of Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani teenager
who survived being shot in the head as she traveled to school in 2012.
Malala has become an outspoken advocate for the rights of all girls to
get an education, the same message Mrs. Obama delivered in her first
solo address to the nation.
Mrs.
Obama noted that more than 65 million girls worldwide do not attend
school even though educated women earn more money and have healthier
families.
'When
more girls attend secondary school, that boosts their country's entire
economy,' she said. 'So education is truly a girl's best chance for a
bright future, not just for herself, but for her family and her nation.'
Mrs.
Obama recently launched a domestic initiative called "Reach Higher" to
encourage young people to pursue education beyond high school, whether
they enroll in a professional training program or attend a community
college or a four-year institution.
In Saturday's address, the first lady asked the nation to pray for the Nigerian girls' safe return.
'This
unconscionable act was committed by a terrorist group determined to
keep these girls from getting an education - grown men attempting to
snuff out the aspirations of young girls,' she said. 'Let us hold their
families in our hearts during this very difficult time, and let us show
just a fraction of their courage in fighting to give every girl on this
planet the education that is her birthright.'
The first lady will make her first solo radio
address, an unusual move that presidents have made before: Laura Bush
talked about the treatment of women in Afghanistan during one 2001
address
The
Nigerian government's inability to rescue the girls nearly a month after
they were abducted by the Boko Haram organization has sparked worldwide
outrage, including protests and a social media campaign. The U.S. and
other countries have sent teams of technical experts to assist the
Nigerian government's search effort.
Authorities
have said more than 300 girls were abducted from their school in the
country's remote northeast. Fifty-three escaped and 276 remain captive.
President Obama said this week that the U.S. will do everything to help Nigeria find them.
Boko
Haram means 'Western education is sinful.' The group's leader, Abubakar
Shekau, has claimed responsibility for the abduction and has threatened
to sell the girls.
President
Barack Obama made the rare move of giving his wife the responsibility
of delivering the White House's weekly radio address on Saturday.
The
move is an unusual one but not unprecedented: Laura Bush gave a similar
address in 2001 when she was first lady, denouncing the treatment of
women in Afghanistan.
Mrs.
Obama has also joined the president in a few radio addresses, but
Saturday marked her first solo appearance.
Conservative radio talkers Rush Limbaugh (L) and
John Gibson (R) said hashtag activism will be ineffective and show the
world that the U.S. is powerless to intervene in Nigeria
Bringing it home: Nigerians protested in
Washington, D.C. on Friday, denouncing the terror group for kidnapping
hundreds of young girls in order to prevent them from receiving a
Western education
In a photo seen around the world, the first lady posed Thursday with a hand-written sign reading #BringBackOurGirls.
'Our prayers are with the missing Nigerian girls and their families,' she wrote in a message that accompanied the picture.
The
president said Wednesday night at a Los Angeles fundraiser for
Democratic candidates that he was anguished over 'the murders and
kidnappings in Nigeria.'
'Every
day when I wake up, and I think about young girls in Nigeria or
children caught up in the conflict in Syria . . . there are times in
which I want to reach out and save those kids,' he told an audience of
donors who paid tens of thousands of dollars to her him and late-night
comic Conan O'Brien speak.
The
leader of Boko Haram has threatened to sell the kidnapped girls into
slavery, and is reportedly holding them prisoner in a giant Nigerian
forest the size of West Virginia.
Nigerian
military forces have refused to enter what locals call the 'evil
forest' because of the high levels of terrorist activity there.
Not everyone has heaped praise on the first lady's push on Twitter to raise awareness about the girls.
'I would love to see the girls freed. I would love to see Boko Haram wiped out,' Fox News Radio's John Gibson said Friday.
'But for the life of me I cannot figure out how hashtagging helps,' he added.'
Except. To. Make. The. Hashtagger. Feel. Good. About. Himself.'
And
conservative radio flamethrower Rush Limbaugh said Thursday that a
Twitter campaign shows that the U.S. is too impotent to intervene.
'It's unbelievable ... what message does this send?' he asked on his daily broadcast.
'Is
the United States really this powerless? And then if you answer yes, we
are really this powerless, then isn't Obama to blame?'
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