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  • Nujood Ali was just an eight-year-old child when her father arranged for her get married.

  • She was one of 16 children. She loved school and playing games with her brothers and sisters.

  • Suddenly I was married. They got me clothes and things so I wore them and they put make-up

  • on for me. I was young, and I was happy with all these things but I didn't now it was for

  • marriage, or what it meant.

  • The man she married was three times her age. He was a delivery driver who lived in a distant

  • village. Nujood's father made a deal with his family.

  • Why did you marry Nujood off?

  • I married her off because of some compelling circumstances. Things were difficult. That

  • was the reason.

  • There's something very different about weddings in Yemen. At celebrations like this, the groom

  • is front and centre but you don't see any women, not even the bride. And when the bride

  • is a child, she's locked away, sometimes not sure what the celebrations are all about.

  • They had music playing and they were singing and in the evening everyone went home. And

  • I was crying. I wanted to go home. They said "You're married. You can't go home." I asked

  • why. They said "You're married now. You can't go back."

  • Nujood's father was following a very common practice in Yemen. Parents arrange marriages

  • for their children when they are very young.

  • But didn't you think that this child Nujood, just eight years old, that when a man had

  • intercourse with her, it would cause injury?

  • I thought... They said he'd only sleep with her after a long period of time.

  • At puberty.

  • Puberty, yes. A year after. But the man didn't respect her and he did not respect us.

  • He sexually assaulted me on the wedding night, forced me. I was with his mother, sister and

  • sister-in-law. Then his sister-in-law left and his mother and sister stayed. He assaulted

  • me. He said "Now you're my wife."

  • Was his mother there when he sexually assaulted you?

  • Yes, his mother was holding me.

  • Holding you.

  • Yes, like this. Of course, I was screaming but no one came to help me.

  • Under Yemeni law, there is no crime of marital rape and Nujood had no help from her family.

  • They told her she now belonged to her husband and had to face up to her duty.

  • So you were crying and screaming...

  • I was screaming as loud as I could, crying, I was like begging them but no one...They

  • said "You're married now. You can't scream or beg anyone."

  • Nujood's mother Samir believed that the marriage would ease the burden on their family and

  • give her daughter a better life.

  • We married her off. Our circumstances were difficult and the situation was harsh. We

  • couldn't feed them or clothe them. We couldn't provide anything. So we married her off. That

  • would mean one less child.

  • Despite her pleas for help, Nujood's family turned their back on her. They said she had

  • to honour her marriage and avoid shaming the family.

  • I hoped that my parents would save me from this marriage. But there was no hope of that

  • though I had high hopes. I went to Dad, my maternal uncle, my paternal uncle, but none

  • of them would help me. So I thought I'm better off helping myself than asking them to help

  • me.

  • With extraordinary courage for a 10-year-old, Nujood set out to end her misery. Choosing

  • a moment when her husband wasn't looking, she made a bid for freedom.

  • I ran away. I took public transport. A bus, then taxi. The driver asked "Where do you

  • want to go?" I said "The court." He said "Which court?" I said "Just the court." I didn't

  • know its name. He took me there.

  • Nujood arrived at West Sanaa's courthouse where she sat sadly wondering what to do next.

  • There was a strong possibility the court would decide Nujood was a runaway and return her

  • to her husband. Instead, she met a judge who was astounded by her age and her courage.

  • She started to tell me her story. I became even more surprised. Is this for real? "What

  • happened?" She said "Something black." She was shy so she didn't say "intercourse". When

  • you say "black", it means bad, not good. Intercourse. "Don't worry. Who is with you?" "I came on

  • my own."

  • When the families gathered in court, the judge told them that under Sharia law the marriage

  • was legal. But he declared the husband should have waited until Nujood reached puberty before

  • having sex with her. So he granted her a divorce.

  • If we look at Yemeni law... it does not specify a certain age for marriage. Which means that

  • a marriage contract can take place even if the boy or the girl are still young. But here

  • we have to differentiate between two things: the marriage procedures and the actual practice

  • of it, having intercourse with the wife.

  • I'd like to ask you a question. Answer me honestly. Are you guilty or not, as regards

  • the marriage?

  • The girl's marriage? I'm guilty and the reason for this is poverty.

  • -The reason is poverty? -It is.

  • I wouldn't have married her off otherwise.

  • Are you thinking of getting married again?

  • No, no, no. Never in my life.

  • No, no, no. Never in my life.

  • of everything except marriage. I've removed it from my mind, from my thinking.

  • Ghadir Ali is another young Yemeni girl whose father planned to marry her off to a much

  • older man. She was just 12 and he wanted to use her dowry to pay off his debts. Ghadir refused.

  • After you said you refused, what did you do?

  • He swore he'd kill me.

  • -He swore he'd kill me. -Kill you?

  • I forced her to marry. I said "Either you agree, or I'll kill you."

  • This was what I said. "If you don't agree, I'll kill you."

  • Then she kept quiet.

  • Then her uncles came to the wedding. And during the procession they took her.

  • -Her uncles? -Yes. They took her during the procession.

  • Ghadir's wedding turned into an ugly family fight. Her maternal uncle turned up determined

  • to prevent the marriage.

  • I only found out about the wedding on the wedding day. I went to her and asked her "So,

  • girl, are you getting married?" She said "Uncle, I don't want to marry. He forced me." "How

  • could he force you?" I said. "How could he force you at your age?" I called her father.

  • "How could you force the girl?"

  • Didn't this result in an argument, a gunfight?

  • Yes, armed men came and this and that and they beat me up.

  • Did they beat you?

  • They beat me up and said "Why are you marrying her off? She's a minor?" "You're marrying

  • her off? She's a minor, you bastard." I said "I asked you to help me but none of you did."

  • In the end, the case came down to a legal argument about money, Ghadir's prospective

  • husband had paid a large dowry and he wanted it back. The court had to decide whether the

  • marriage was a valid contract.

  • Excuse me, sir. I'm the husband's lawyer. Sir, the fact is she consented to the marriage.

  • She fingerprinted the contract. The father was the one who went to my client and asked him to marry his daughter.

  • The father came first

  • Her father came to me and said "I'll marry her off to you" and we entered into the contract

  • And she agreed and put her thumbprint on it. No one forced her. The celebrant, the judge, asked "Do you agree?"

  • She said yes. He told her to thumbprint it. We had witnesses.

  • I paid all the wedding expenses. The procession... Legal procedures... All my siblings lost money.

  • While the lawyers argued, Ghadir waited outside the court, a child caught up in an adult world

  • beyond her understanding.

  • She is one of many victims in Yemen because of the financial situation of her family.

  • Ghadir was married off because her father had borrowed 300,000. She and her sister,

  • who's also a minor, were married off. Both of them were married off and the father paid

  • off his debt.

  • Ghadir no longer lives with her husband but, while the legal argument continues, her divorce

  • has not yet been granted. In Yemen, the Human Rights Watch estimates that more than half

  • of all young girls are married before they're 18. Marriages of girls as young as nine or

  • 10 are common. Four years ago, the parliament attempted to pass legislation making 17 the

  • minimum age for marriage but it was blocked by members of the opposition party -Yemen's

  • Muslim Brotherhood.

  • No one has the right, not the president, the parliament or anyone, to restrict something

  • God has allowed.

  • Sheikh Mohammed Al-Hazmi is a member of Yemen's parliament and an Islamic scholar.

  • Islam doesn't specify an age for marriage. Why do they look into something that is not

  • an issue? Why do they make a problem out of nothing? I want to ask...Why is early marriage

  • a problem?

  • Nujood's divorce made her an international celebrity. The media spotlight transformed

  • the life of a shy 10-year-old girl. An American fashion magazine staged a glittering awards

  • ceremony in New York where Nujood was declared Woman of the Year. A book about Nujood became

  • an international best seller and the royalties were put towards her education and a new house

  • for her family in Yemen.

  • This is for my sister and me.

  • -For you and your sister? -Yes.

  • -It's your room? -Yes, we always sit in here.

  • Are you happy with your father, after what he did to you?

  • No, if I said I was I'd be lying. I'm not happy with him.

  • -You're not. -I'm not.

  • Are you still hurting?

  • I'm still hurting, and every time I see him, I suffer.

  • Nujood's younger sister Haifa is not sure that her father has changed his ways. She's

  • frightened that he might try to arrange a marriage for her.

  • After what I've seen with my sister, I'm shocked. That's it, I don't want it.

  • You're scared that the same might happen to you.

  • If the same thing happened to you, what would you do?

  • What would I do? I would not stay with him, I'd run away.

  • -You'd run away to avoid the marriage? -Yes

  • Will you do it again and marry another daughter off at a young age?

  • No, I won't marry anyone off. Never again.

  • -You won't marry them off? -Not until they're over 22.

  • What is my wish in life? At the moment, I have no wish, only to continue my education.

  • To finish primary school, high school and God willing university and after that, I'm

  • thinking... myself and other people, of establishing an organisation to combat the phenomenon of

  • early marriage or child marriage.

Nujood Ali was just an eight-year-old child when her father arranged for her get married.

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