Sad though this recently published book is I’m glad I read I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced. It's a short, simple and gripping story told by Nujood Ali herself, with the help of a writer named Delphine Minoui.
Nujood, who is from Yemen, has become world famous for her brave demand at age 10 for a divorce. I read the book in part because I'm appalled at the forced marriage of girls as young as nine or ten years old, a practice that is widespread in the Islamic world. It’s justified because Muhammad married a child of nine.
In part because of his addiction to the amphetamine-like stimulant qat* her father was unable to support his family. So when she was about 10 years old he sold Nujood to a man three times her age. Her husband took her to an isolated village where she became a prisoner. He repeatedly raped and beat her and she got no help or even sympathy from his family.
On a visit to her parents in Sanaa Nujood ran away and found a sympathetic woman lawyer who helped her obtain a divorce. Courage and determination are words often thrown about casually but this is a child with extraordinary courage and stiff determination. Because of her fame she has been able to return to school and wants to be a lawyer.
* Qat is so popular in Yemen that its cultivation consumes much of the country's agricultural resources. It is estimated that 40% of the country's water supply goes towards irrigating it, with production increasing by about 10% to 15% every year. Water consumption is so high that groundwater levels in the Sanaa basin are diminishing; because of this, government officials have proposed relocating large portions of the population of Sanaa to the coast of the Red Sea. - Wikipedia