I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced by Nujood Ali with Delphine Minoui

Title: I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced
Author: Nujood Ali with Delphine Minoui
Type: Non-Fiction
Genre: Memoir
Series: No
Copyright: 2010
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Summary: from Good Reads

“I’m a simple village girl who has always obeyed the orders of my father and brothers. Since forever, I have learned to say yes to everything. Today I have decided to say no.”

Forced by her father to marry a man three times her age, young Nujood Ali was sent away from her parents and beloved sisters and made to live with her husband and his family in an isolated village in rural Yemen. There she suffered daily from physical and emotional abuse by her mother-in-law and nightly at the rough hands of her spouse. Flouting his oath to wait to have sexual relations with Nujood until she was no longer a child, he took her virginity on their wedding night. She was only ten years old.

Unable to endure the pain and distress any longer, Nujood fled—not for home, but to the courthouse of the capital, paying for a taxi ride with a few precious coins of bread money. When a renowned Yemeni lawyer heard about the young victim, she took on Nujood’s case and fought the archaic system in a country where almost half the girls are married while still under the legal age. Since their unprecedented victory in April 2008, Nujood’s courageous defiance of both Yemeni customs and her own family has attracted a storm of international attention. Her story even incited change in Yemen and other Middle Eastern countries, where underage marriage laws are being increasingly enforced and other child brides have been granted divorces.

Recently honored alongside Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice as one of Glamour magazine’s women of the year, Nujood now tells her full story for the first time. As she guides us from the magical, fragrant streets of the Old City of Sana’a to the cement-block slums and rural villages of this ancient land, her unflinching look at an injustice suffered by all too many girls around the world is at once shocking, inspiring, and utterly unforgettable.

Feelings:
This is the story of a young girl who is brave beyond her years. In Yemen this is not an uncommon fate for young girls from poor families. To be married is an honor and even at a young age one must listen to their family.

One February evening in 2008, when I'd just gotten home, Aba told me he had some good news. "Nujood, you are about to be married." (p. 40)

This is just the start of the suffering that Nujood undergoes at an age where many girls are still in school or enjoying childhood pleasures.

"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." (p. 42)

This is a book full of uncomfortable moments such as this were we wonder if there is something that could be done to have prevented this from happening. Something that could have stopped this child from learning the suffering of life, and loosing her childhood long before she should have. To say that Nujood is brave is an understatement, she had to go against family, tradition, and culture something that would be hard for even a woman of more years and experience.

While the book is simply written the emotions come through strong. For those who are interested in women's rights in third world countries this is a must read. We may feel that we are helpless to do anything for girls half way around the world who are suffering but just being aware of what happens in other countries can change the way we think and the actions we take. And little actions can sometimes make big changes.