Significant Cases in Recent History
On November 19, 2008 Nujood Mohammed Ali was honored for her campaigns against forced early marriage in Yemen. Glamour Magazine named Nujood 'Woman of the Year' for her efforts, shortly after she divorced her own husband of more than 3 years. Nujood herself was the victim of an arranged and forced marriage. Though in Yemen the legal age to marry is 15, the economic conditions prove it more economically convenient to have one less mouth to feed and marry them off as girls. Nujood was married off from her economically struggling family at age nine. The agreement between her father and a local motorcycle courier was that Nujood would marry him with the stipulation that he would not consummate the marriage until she had reached puberty. But like most forced early marriages, Nujood was raped and often beaten. Nujood somehow escaped and proceeded to get the marriage annulled. Her victory in receiving the divorce from her abuse helped to draw attention to the brutality and cruelty children face. Nujood has now returned to school and wants to one day become a lawyer to protect the rights of children.
Read more about this topic: Anti-Slavery International
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