Hero in a small package. 
In Yemen, as in most middle east countries, culture of tribal customs makes forced marriage of prepubescent children to older men commonplace, frequently giving rise to situations of culturally sanctioned pedophilia. Escape from this climate of child abuse is nearly impossible because of tribal honor codes which place huge social penalties on the girl and her family if she leaves the marriage.
Nujood Ali, at age 10, was married off by her family to a 30 yr old man, who according to the father, promised he would not touch her until she was 20...(and the check is in the mail, right?) Nevertheless, she was humiliated, beaten and forced to have sex.
Normally, that would be the end of the all too common sad story. But she escaped one day and made her way across town to the local court house where she sat on a bench and demanded that a judge hear her case.
When she finally told the judge her story, he was fortunately sympathetic. He placed her in the custody of female human rights lawyer who advocates in such matters and had the husband and Ali's father jailed while divorce proceedings went forward. The result is that the girl is now divorced and back with her family.
Partially because of the rarity of the case, it was spread to news outlets around the world and the celebrity has so far prevented whatever regular repercussions of the honor code would have been visited on the family. Since there is no law against child marriage in Yemen, the husband and father were released without charge. Its a relatively happy ending for a little girl who undertook a huge risk.
Leave a comment