*(my this post is dedicated to such brave and zealed hearts like Nujood Ali)
While reading the ToI’s Sunday edition last day, one article grabbed my eyeballs. It was about a Yemeni girl name Najood Ali. It was about her past two years where she faced her life’s toughest situations and made it possible, to come out of it.
Making a history in Yemen, a girl who was married at the age of 9 and divorced at 10. With the press release in united states Nujood Ali memoirs her life in yesteryears, how she was forced by her impoverished father to marry a three times older man, who raped and beaten her. Her father forced her to marry at 9 (when most of us play our childhood), due to their poor life status, fathering a dozen children.
Asked about incident about her marriage, Nujood said she was forcefully married at age of 9 to three times older man, by her father. Her husband took her and his family to a village where he raped her in the first night, she shouted with awful pain but she was all alone nobody came to rescue her or to help her. Her pain was not restricted to the same night but during her marriage she was beaten, raped and abused.
One day when her husband allowed her to visit her family, she ran off and directly boarded a cab to courthouse. With the help of Yemeni human rights lawyer Shada Nasser, a judge guaranteed her a divorce making her Middle East Country’s first divorced child bride. She said her life after divorce is calm and like an average middle class kid comparing it to her last years’ poor life.
The divorce of Nujood Ali and some other cases has urged the citizen to push a ban in marriage before 18 years of age. But is it really possible there? UNICEF says in Yemen, quarter to girls’ population is married by the age of 15. As a suggested in memoir child brides in Yemen are fueled by combination of a lack of women’s rights, and status of women in society.A book is published by French journalist Delphine Minoui about how Nujood Ali’s impoverished father forced her to marry a much older man, who raped her in the first night.
Ali remarkably says “I don’t know what is written in it, except what I have been told, I am still waiting to read it in my language. But I think it is important for my story to come out to the world”.
But does the end of the book signify Nujood’s life too? Is the end similar to her real life? Nujood want to complete her education and schooling, but last year she was kicked out of her school due to her poor attendance reports. She is very much busy in her long lasting interviews and press releases. Now she want to concentrate in her academics, and thank to her new surrounding she don’t have to depend upon anyone for her education, as her academia is remunerated by her royalties of the book published.
But my question is, in about quarter to the girl population in Yemen who married by the age of 15, how many Nujood Ali are born? Where we know most of them compromises with the situation and live a abusive life throughout their age. What is the reason behind, is it poor social status of woman in their society, or lack of human rights or women’s rights we say, who are there to blame the law and order system? Who may or may not know about societal flaws. Or may be impoverished life standard which forces the family to take such steps. But it can be also be the lack of initiative, which gives rise to such cases.
When we live in a metropolitan city we believe such practices does not take place in India. But it does. What we need to do is take an initiative to change the mind set of such people, and that is not very tough thing to do, when we are educated then we can easily make people (who believe in such practices) understand of being HUMAN!
deepika...
