From Cnn.com, a really wonderful article about how Michelle Obama and her daughters are helping women of color all around the world overcome stigmas imposed upon them by their respective cultures:
CNN) -- Heather Ferreira works in the slums of Mumbai, India, where she has watched thousands of women live under a "curse."
The women she meets in the squalid streets where "Slumdog Millionaire"
was filmed are often treated with contempt, she says. They're
considered ugly if their skin and hair are too dark. They are deemed
"cursed" if they only have daughters. Many would-be mothers even abort
their children if they learn they're female.
Yet lately she says
Indian women are getting another message from the emergence of another
woman thousands of miles away. This woman has dark skin and hair. She
walks next to her husband in public, not behind. And she has two
daughters. But no one calls her cursed. They call her Michelle Obama,
the first lady.
"She could be a new face for India," says
Ferreira, program officer for an HIV-prevention program run by World
Vision, an international humanitarian group. "She shows women that it's
OK to have dark skin and to not have a son. She's quite real to us."
Those who focus on Michelle Obama's impact on America are
underestimating her reach. The first lady is inspiring women of color
around the globe to look at themselves, and America, in fresh ways. Read on. . .
