Two Day Magazine

Most little girls in the 3rd grade are learning how to add and subtract fractions, not adding and subtracting husbands. Nujood is a little girl from Yemen, a place where child brides and pedophilia, as well as terrorism and extreme religious dogma prevail.

Nujood’s dark journey started when she was the ripe old age of 10. Her family sat her down and informed her that she would be marrying a delivery man who was in his 30s. In her new autobiography recently published in the United States: http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780307589675 , Nujood writes: “In our country, it’s the men who give the orders, and the women who follow them. I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced.”

At her wedding, while most women would be mingling with guests, eating cake, dancing with their friends and kissing their new husband, Nujood sat in the corner, the tears swelling her eyes shut with pain and fear. Her new husband made her drop out of school (at the time she was in 2nd grade) because married women shouldn’t be students. This rule is ridiculous, obviously, and made even more ridiculous because Nujood is certainly not a woman yet!

Because her father was such a saint, he asked her new slave-owner (whoops, I mean, husband) to wait until she had her first menstrual cycle before copulating with her. Considering she was 10, this could have meant celibacy for a few more years. Obviously, this didn’t happen, and Nujood was raped immediately upon being married. On top of being sexually and mentally abused by this pig, Nujood was subject to routine beatings, which her mother-in-law supported, saying: “Hit her even harder.” Women that have been subjected to violence themselves are going to perpetuate that violence on to the next generation, unfortunately.

One day, however, a ray of hope came into Nujood’s life when she overheard the concept of “divorce” and how a judge could grant one. This spirited, unbelievably courageous girl snuck away one day, which was very dangerous to do, hopped in a taxi and asked to be taken to the courthouse.

Can you imagine this scenario? Being 9 or 10 and going through the pain and torture of being a child bride, of being snatched from your home, forced from your school into the arms of someone who wants to treats you like property, and still having the strength and confidence to flee? This child is nothing short of a hero to people everywhere.

Once she arrived at the courthouse, Nujood pleaded to speak with a judge. “I want to talk to the judge,” says Nujood in her book.

“Which judge are you looking for?”

“I just want to speak to a judge, that’s all.”

“But, there are lots of judges in this courthouse.”

“Take me to a judge---it doesn’t matter which one!”

After encountering a judge, Nujood spoke firmly. “I want a divorce!”

Once the local media in Yemen caught wind of this story, Nujood became a local sensation, a sign of hope to other young women enslaved in the institution of child brides. The story has a happy ending. She was eventually given her divorce, and her struggle and victory has led others to do the same, including an 8 year old Saudi girl married to a man in his 50s: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8026545.stm

Nujood has visited the United States and Hillary Clinton has spoken of Nujood, declaring her as “one of the greatest women I have ever seen.” Nujood’s memoir has been published in 18 languages, including her native Arabic, and spent 5 weeks as the No. 1 best-seller in France. The royalties from her book support her and her family, and I am happy to say that this bright, brave, strong little girl is back in school, where she belongs.

I hope that when others read this blog, they will think hard on what it is to be loved, what it is to be a child, and what it is to be married. As long as there are women (or little girls) in the world like Nujood, standing up for themselves against all odds, our civilization has a chance to survive and thrive. It takes more than women standing up, however. It takes men, too, supporting these women as they strive for a better life, a better future, a more independent existence.

We are all children of the universe, and the sooner we begin to acknowledge ourselves as such, we can create those collective bonds across state lines, across country lines, across oceans to the other end of the world. We can take a stand against this kind of violence and enslavement by treating the people around us with respect and love.

PS: Ignore the first few seconds of the video with all the bubbles on it. It will go away and then the video is fine.