Reading: "I am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced" by Nujood & Delphini Minoui

It's been a while since I've read a book that I couldn't put down. It touched my heartstrings in many ways.

The first half of the book is a vignette of the young heroine, Nujood, who lives in Yemen. It is the story of a child married against her will or consent at the age of 9 to a man over three times her age. There was no gentleness or compassion as he assaulted her physically and sexually and her mother-in-law showed her no kindness or compassion after he repeatedly raped his child-bride. That part of the story was handled very delicately as befits the dignity and understanding of a child; I am grateful that the major details were minimized although alluded to. A few months later, she begged him to visit her family and he agreed.  While there, she ran away and went to court to ask a judge to grant her a divorce. She was fortunate to find a judge with young daughters who took compassion on her plight and found her a female attorney who was active in trying to stop the practice of marrying off young children.

The second half of the book is about her life after the divorce. Because of laws and family devotion, she chose to move back home to hopefully protect her young sister from the same abusive fate. There are time of misery, occasional sparks of childhood and comments of maturity as she processed what she'd been through.

The book covers her life from 2008-2009.  I searched online to see if her life improved.  Apparently her teen years are still fraught with financial struggles as her father bought two more wives and has had 14 more children -- using the money earned from her book that was to be used to help the existing family and to pay for her education.  The father kicked her out but continues to collect the royalties of her book. As a minor she has no say, nor can the publisher send her the money to her until she reaches her majority.  The father also sold Nujood's younger sister into marriage at a young age.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/mar/12/child-bride-father-cash-spend
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nujood_Ali

There has been a movie made of her life.

I found this video by National Geographic that explains the multi-faceted issue with trying to ban child marriages:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7c_zppPutQw  It is not just Islam but all major world religions, including Christianity, who practice selling their daughters young as a child bride.

In the roots of Christianity, Judaism, a girl had to be 3 years and 1 day old before having sexual intercourse with her husband.   http://discover-the-truth.com/2013/09/14/bible-child-marriage-in-ancient-israelite-times-paedophilia/

I'm grateful I live in modern times and in Western society.