Yemeni child bride fights for divorce
Source: BBC – http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8429074.stm
Date of Article : 1.5.10
Summary : Nine year old Nujood was unaware of her impending marriage until the day of her wedding, on which she was, against her will, wedded to a 30 year old man. It was not until several days of pleading with her husband’s family to let her go home and two failed escape attempts that she was finally advised by her stepmother to file for divorce. Making her way to the court alone, she filed for divorce and was sheltered by the judge at his own home for three days. Upon returning to her family, her husband and father were both sentenced to small amounts of jail time and she was able to return to school, her original goal.
Response: This article provides a bit of a culture shock for me; telling a story in which I cannot imagine anyone whom I have ever interacted with. Although we, as a society, are entirely aware of the existence of arranged marriages, we do not know the full extent of the injustice they entail. If Nujood were not able to get a divorce, her life would have been, from age nine, housework and later, bearing children. This is an incredibly dim fate for a girl who aspires to attend university. If we see this amount of injustice in an issue that has a positive conclusion, how can we even begin to understand, and then remedy, even worse problems?
