I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced

I was confused when I began reading I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced, because it starts like a fairy tale: "Once upon a time there was a magicalland with legends as astonishing as its houses...". Several pages later, a paragraph starts: "Nujood is neither a queen nor a princess. She is a normal girl...". I checked the book's back cover to be sure I read correctly. Yes it is an autobiography. Author of I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced is listed as Nujood Ali "with Delphine Minoui". Nujood's story actually begins in Chapter One. The introduction written by Minoui offers a picturesque look a Yemen and its history.

As I continued to read, I begin to wonder if I had mistakenly picked up a children's book, yet it was displayed on New Adult Non-fiction shelf at the library. Then Minoui writes "Yemen has experienced a series of civil wars too complicated for the pages of children's books." That is fine, especially since I know very little about the country. I do know about cultures where it is common for father's to choose husbands for their daughters, in essence selling them to the husband. I know two women who were forced into marriage at age thirteen, having children when they were still children themselves. One, a Lithuanian Christen married in the early 1900s; the other, an Indonesian Muslim married in 1982.

Nujood's story is one of happiness and poverty. Nujood and her sister would look at a white wedding gown in a store window. She dreamed of the day she would wear such a gown, having a fabulous wedding celebration. Her dream was shattered when her father gave his ten-year-old daughter in marriage to a much older man. The man promised not to touch the child until she was past puberty, breaking the promise on their wedding night. Taken to a village far from home, Nujood was among strangers with no way to escape her husband's sexual and physical abuse. After months of begging he finally agreed to take Nujood home to visit her family.

I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced is a powerful story of a young girl's courage. She had "learned to yes to everything", then "decided to say no." She defied her family and society rules. During the visit, she snuck out, walked into a courtroom, spoke to a judge and told him "I want a divorce."

The judge was sympathetic, introducing her to professional women who could help her. Nujood could not "...have imagined that a woman could manage a newspaper", and "...was dumfounded to discover that most of the journalists were women."

Originally published in France in 2009, with translation copyright in 2010, I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced was published in the United States by Three Rivers Press. The 188 page book includes Epilogue by Minoui, Acknowledgments, Notes and Readers Group Guide and is available at Crown Publishing dot com with cover price of $12.00.