Nujood Ali: 10-Yr-Old Glamour Woman Of The Year Writes Autobiography
“My father beat me and told me that I must marry this man, and if I did not, I would be raped and no law and no sheikh in this country would help me. I refused but I couldn’t stop the marriage,” Nojoud Nasser told the Yemen Times. “I asked and begged my mother, father, and aunt to help me to get divorced. They answered, ‘We can do nothing. If you want you can go to court by yourself.’ So this is what I have done,” she said.”
–Najood Ali
One of our favorite stories here at DBKP is how Najood Ali went from an 8-yr-old child bride in Yemen to Glamour Magazine’s 2008 Woman Of The Year.
Nujood Ali and Shada Nasser, Esq., leave the stage after being honored at the Glamour Women of the Year awards
Now more news from Najood (ed. note, there is no uniform translation of Arabic to English, so words are often spelled differently)
Schoolgirl divorcee, 10, launches book about shocking child bride ordeal
“A schoolgirl who was married by the age of eight today launched a new book about her extraordinary ordeal.
Nojoud Ali, now aged 10, is in Paris promoting an autobiography which is set to be a worldwide bestseller.
British publishers are already queuing up for the rights to a story which has been taken up by women’s rights groups worldwide.
Last year a court in Yemen annulled Nojoud’s arranged marriage to a 29-year-old man.
The minimum age for marriage is currently 15 years-old in the country, but parents are allowed to overrule the law if they judge that their daughter is ‘ready’ for marriage.
Noujoud’s strict Muslim family had decided she was, forcing her to go and live with Faez Ali Thameur.
The pair did consummate the marriage, it is claimed.” (ed. note. Early press accounts uniformly referred to the fact she was raped and sexually abused.For instance she told CNN “I didn’t want to sleep with him, but he forced me to. He hit me, insulted me.”)
“Yemen, one of the poorest countries in the world, is notorious for its child brides.
Noujoud’s unemployed father, Mohammad Ali Al-Ahdal, told the court he felt obliged to marry off his daughter after receiving repeated threats from the would-be husband and his entourage.
He said was frightened because his oldest daughter had been kidnapped several years earlier and had been forced to marry her abductor. ”
If that logic makes sense to you, please see a psychiatrist.
“Noujoud said she was also regularly beaten by her husband. Shatha Nasser, Noujoud’s lawyer, said: ‘Child brides are common in parts of Yemen, but this case received wider attention because it reached court.’
Now Nojoud and her eight year-old sister Hifa are able to go to school thanks to financial donations from human rights activists.”
…
“Visiting Pantin, a suburb of Paris yesterday, Nojoud said: ‘Now I want to return to school so as to become a lawyer and help other girls like me.’
‘Me, Nojoud, 10, divorcee’ is published by Michel Lafon”
We wish Najood well and hope her book has some impact on the plight of Muslim women.
by pat
Source – Daily Mail – Schoolgirl divorcee, 10, launches book about shocking child bride ordeal
may this brave little girl have a bestseller and live comfortably enough to attain her dream of becoming a lawyer to fight for the rights of girls and women like herself. She has gone through much and she challenged a horrible situation and found people who helped her prevail. Surely she is blessed.
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pat Reply:
February 6th, 2009 at 14:34
Yes indeed, Kara, and thanks for stopping by.
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The “plight of Muslim women”…??? This issue has nothing to do with Islam. If you notice, Shada Nasser, the attorney, is also a Muslim woman. These are purely cultural issues and it’s time people stop linking these horrors to Islam.
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pat Reply:
March 1st, 2009 at 15:35
Nonsense. The wedding of Mohamed to Aisha is continually cited in the Muslim community as justification for child rape.
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I am afraid that unless and until Immams decry this practice it is indeed a muslim issue. Very often they praise this practice as keeping young women from sin. They most often turn a blind eye to it, but too many sanction these practices as normal, and worthy of continuing. They feel that if a little girl is married young she will have no chance to become immoral –basically robbing from her the right to choose her own path, her own future. Instead she is essentially the property of her brothers, her father
her husband and her sons. All of her life, she is not known as herself but as “daughter of” or “mother of” and not worthy in her own right of respect and Value.
If she was Valued then why is her testimony in Islamic court worth less?
why is it a man can beat his wife, if she doesnt submit in happy obedience, but she cannot beat him?
That is not culture, that is Islam.
I find myself annoyed by people who wish to kick the can of responsibility for this treatment down the road to culture, when we all know what the Imams say.
women live as property, they are treated as less worthy of respect and Value than a fine horse. Because you can get a woman anywhere but a fine horse is hard to find.
Now it is a cultural problem that if you dont submit and bring shame to your family and your husband you will be killed.
But it Islam that women must submit perfectly and be grateful to their husbands that often they do not know before they assent to marry.
THis little girl puts a face on a huge segment of the worlds population that has for too long been ignored.
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