I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced

I AM NUJOOD, AGE 10 AND DIVORCED is a book written by Nujood Ali with the help of Delphine Minoui. Nujood was forced into marrying a man three times her age.The title of the book depicts the seriousness of her divorce in a small age. The book must be read by whole sections of society because it points out how much a child marriage demolishes one's hopes,dreams and how it burns the delighted wings of life.The world is not always a nice place, The more people know about girls like Nujood, the more help child brides can get.

This remarkable book includes dramatic circumstances of Yemen on those days, poverty, patriarchal society, rape, abuse, and child bride. fascinating insights into Yemeni culture, family life, and the role of women, and sheds a light on the often wretched plight of women in the Muslim world. An inferior culture which misunderstanding the rules and depicts of religious beliefs. It is not just a story but the eloquent tongue of a little brave girl who survived toxic life periods. Many poverty stricken parents in developing and under-developed countries are forced to sell their children. Be it into slave labor, sweat shop factories, forced marriages or prostitution. Nujood was one among them.

Nujood Ali, When her desperately poor father sold her into marriage to a much older man, she suffered months of horrific abuse before finding the courage to rebel. Due to poverty conditions suffered by her family after her father lost his job, her father accepts a dowry from a man looking for a young wife to marry which was Nujood. Nujood's new married life only gets worse when she is mistreated and objectified as a slave by her cold-hearted mother-in-law. Nujood's husband promises her father that he will not consummate the marriage until she is older. However, immediately, he begins to rape her every night. The marriage was a complete nightmare with not only daily physical and sexual abuse from her husband, but verbal and physical abuse from her mother in law. Her dreams of getting an education in school are prohibited. Her determination to detach herself from living the life of a wife, drives her to run to a courthouse and demand a judge to grant her a divorce. Remarkably the judges at the courthouse were genuinely sympathetic to her plight, and she found lawyers and journalists ready to fight for her. Becoming a heroin she knows as first child-bride in Yemen history to be granted divorce. with her single-minded tenacity, she escaped from a situation that was babaric and cruel.

The incident she described in her book in the courtroom is very fabulous.

"And why do you want a divorce?" he continues in a more natural tone, as if trying to hide his astonishment. I look him straight in the eye. "Because my husband beats me." ... Point-blank, he asks me an important question: "Are you still a virgin?" ... I'm ashamed of talking about these things. ... But in that same instant I understand that if I want to win, I must take the plunge. "No. I bled." (page 42)

One can cheer for the compassionate Yemeni judges and lawyer who rescued ten-year-old Nujood from the bone-chilling nightmare of her forced prepubescent marriage.

This simply book is written with complete honesty including Shocking details about her life, Great insights on village life in Yemen and at last a Hopeful outcome. It is really difficult to think of the injustices this poor child had to endure. It is hard to imagine how difficult life can be if one is born in some place. she becomes a heroin for many women in her country and all over the world, because she took a great pledge against forced child marriages. Her courage will give others encouragement to act accordingly. anyone concerned about women's rights should read this.It is an incredible story of one young girl's determination to achieve the goal she sets out to reach. The strength , stubbornness and determination of this one child brought her from victim to victor. Her story has been the reason for changes in Yemen and other countries. Underage marriage laws are being enforced and other little girls have been given divorces since Nujood’s. Certainly this is a story we need to hear. We need to be aware of the atrocities that befall women in cultures such as this one.

Delphine Minou has supplied notes for the convenience of the reader.Also at the back of the book, there is a Reading Group Guide which is fascinating to read all by itself and helps us more, not to accept, but to understand these practices that are so apparently “normal.”.