Donald Trump’s wife, Melania, presided over a UN Security Council meeting on Monday to advocate for children’s education. This was days after reported airstrikes killed at least 165 people at a girls’ school in the ongoing Iran war.
Melania Trump speaks about kids’ education at UN Security Council meeting
The UN Security Council meeting, titled “Children, Technology and Education in Conflict,” had been scheduled before the US and Israeli strikes launched against Iran on Saturday. Iranian state media reported that at least 165 people died when an airstrike hit a girls’ school in southern Iran, though the Israeli military said it was unaware of strikes in the area and the US military stated it was investigating the reports.
Seated at the council’s table in New York, Melania Trump greeted Secretary-General António Guterres, shook hands with all 15 member state representatives, and posed for a group photograph before opening the session. “The US stands with all of the children throughout the world,” she said in her remarks. “I hope soon peace will be yours.”
The first lady shared that education serves as a foundation for preventing conflict. “A nation that makes learning sacred protects its books, its language, its science and its mathematics. It protects its future.” She also addressed the role of technology in expanding educational access, urging the council to “connect everyone to knowledge through AI, including those in the most remote geographic regions of our world.”
However, Trump’s wife did not address the ongoing war or the reported school strike in her speech. Her appearance came just hours after Iran’s UN ambassador, Amir Saeid Iravani, called it “deeply shameful and hypocritical” for Washington to convene a meeting on protecting children while launching airstrikes on Iranian cities.
“Conflict arises from ignorance, but knowledge creates understanding, replacing fear with peace and unity,” she concluded, urging members to “pledge to safeguard learning” and “build a future generation of leaders who embrace peace through education (via The Guardian).”
